April 13, 2004, The Philippine Star, Suspected Abu Sayyaf gunmen abduct three in southern Philippines.

April 13, 2004, The Philippine Star, Suspected Abu Sayyaf gunmen abduct three in southern Philippines.

Filipino gunmen suspected to be Abu Sayyaf members reportedly seized yesterday an Indonesian and two Malaysians after raiding their tugboat in Malaysian waters near the southern Philippines, a navy official said. [Passage omitted]

According to Capt Feliciano Angue, chief of the anti-terror Naval Task Force 62, the armed men dressed in military fatigues hijacked the Ocean 2 tugboat at about 5.40 p.m. [local time] in Lingkian island - one of the islands bordering Malaysia and near Mindanao's Taganak island. [Passage omitted]

Angue said a "key witness" they are holding expressed with certainty that the leader of the gunmen was a Filipino. As of press time, a tactical interrogation on the witness was still ongoing, he said.

Angue said it has yet to be established whether the suspects have links to the Abu Sayyaf terror group. According to Angue, the gunmen, believed to be based in one of the islands in Tawi-Tawi, raided the tugboat pulling a barge loaded with sand to a port in the Borneo island state of Sabah in Malaysia. Malaysia is accessible by speedboat and can be reached in only one to two hours from one of the islands in Tawi-Tawi.

The armed suspects reportedly left behind the other crew members after taking with them the Indonesian skipper and his two Malaysian crewmen.

Angue said their witness informed them that the suspects brought their victims to Buan island in Tawi-Tawi and stayed there for a few hours before leaving for an unknown location. "If the report of our witness is right, we have already in mind who perpetrated the abduction," Angue said without categorically stating it was the Abu Sayyaf.

Navy elements and a Marine company are scouring the islands in the southern Philippine border in search of the suspects and their victims, Angue said. [Passage omitted]

Source: The Philippine Star web site, Manila, in English 13 Apr 04