Philippines: Abu Sayyaf may have snatched foreigners

By Hader Glang

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines

Three foreigners and a Filipina kidnapped from a Philippines resort may have been taken by their captors to an al-Qaeda-linked group's island stronghold, the southern Philippines autonomous government said Monday.

Mujiv Hataman, governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, told Anadolu Agency on Monday that there were clear indications that the group had snatched the four.

"But these need to be validated," he underlined, saying intelligence forces were in the area.

Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte had earlier informed reporters of intelligence reports saying the kidnappers and their victims were en route to the Abu Sayyaf stronghold of Sulu.

Sulu's Vice Governor, Abdusakur Tan, told Anadolu Agency by text message Monday that the police and army had deployed personnel to investigate.

Unidentified armed men forcibly took Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad, Canadian nationals John Ridsdel and Robert Hall, and Hall’s Filipina partner Marites Flor from the Holiday Ocean View hotel on Samal Island at around 11 p.m. (1500GMT) on Sept. 21.

Ridsdel is president of TVI Minerals Processing, Inc., a firm providing mineral mining services, with its main office in Pasig City but with business interests in Mindanao.

Speculation has grown over the identity of the unidentified kidnappers, with one source anonymously telling Anadolu Agency on Saturday that they were a kidnap-for-ransom group named Tanum, which has worked with the Abu Sayyaf in the past.

Gangs such as Tanum are known to hand over their captives to the group and negotiate for a ransom that, if paid, is shared.

The kidnappers use isolated sea-lanes and coastal areas to grab their victims, who are then held captive in isolated Muslim villages in the peninsula.

Since 1991, the Abu Sayyaf -- armed with mostly improvised explosive devices, mortars and automatic rifles -- has carried out bombings, kidnappings, assassinations and extortions in a self-determined fight for an independent Islamic province in the Philippines.

It is notorious for beheading victims after ransoms have failed to be paid for their release.