October 25, 2000, The Star, Three Malaysian hostages rescued in the Philippines,

October 25, 2000, The Star, Three Malaysian hostages rescued in the Philippines,

Kota Kinabalu: Three Malaysian hostages held by the Abu Sayaff group in southern Philippines were rescued by the Philipppines military at 2.20 pm (0620GMT) Wednesday.

A Malaysian embassy official notified one of the family members in Kota Kinabalu about this 15 minutes after the rescue.

They were rescued after an hour-long clash in a mangrove area between the group members and the Philippines military in Jolo island.

This leaves only one American and a Filipino in the hands of the group which has kidnapped and held scores of people hostage.

There were no immediate reports of casulties.

On Tuesday, one rebel commander and 18 followers surrendered to the military on Jolo.

This brought to 110 the number of Abu Sayyaf members who have surrendered since the military launched a rescue operation Sept.16 to free an initial 19 hostages, the military said.

The military added it is planning to pull out some of the 5,000 troops that had been deployed to rescue the hostages.

The rebel group claims to be fighting for independence for the predominantly Muslim populated area in southern Philippines. END