Philippine Troops Rescue Two Indonesian Hostages

Philippine soldiers rescued two Indonesian hostages on Thursday after a firefight that killed five of their Islamist militant captors on a southern island, an army commander said.

Manila, MINA – The Philippine troops rescued on Thursday two Indonesian men held hostage by Islamist militants in southern Philippine Sulu island since November last year, China’s Xinhua news agency reported.

Brig. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana, the commander of the joint task force Sulu, said the two Indonesian hostages were rescued around 6.30 am local time on Thursday in remote Bunot village in Indanan, Sulu.

Sobejana said the two kidnapped victims, Saparuddin Kong and Sawal Maryam, were aboard a car when recovered. The victims were brought to a local hospital for medical checkup, he said.

The military said five gunmen abducted the two indonesian men in November last year off Kunak, a small town in the eastern Malaysian state of Sabah.

A few minutes before the two Indonesians were recovered, Sobejana said troops encountered some 20 members of the Abu Sayyaf militants in another village in Talipao town in Sulu. Five militants were killed and five soldiers wounded in that clash, he said.

Abu Sayyaf is one of the smallest and most violent jihadist groups operating in the southern Philippines notorious for kidnappings, bombings and attacking civilians and the army. The group, numbering about 500 has been sowing terror in the southern Philippine region since the early 1990s. (T/RS5/RS1)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)