The Battle of Lamitan Hospital

April 18, 2000, Philippine Inquirer, Now, Abu Sayyaf threatens to kill, kidnap Americans, Julie Alipala-Inot,
March 21, 2001, Reuters, Filipino rebels escape with hostages amid fighting,
June 1, 2001, AFP, Friday, 7:49 PM Two Philippine soldiers dead, 21 people hurt in clash with kidnappers,
June 1, 2001, Reuters, Philippine troops attack hostage takers,
June 3, 2001, Reuters, Filipino rebels escape with hostages amid fighting,
June 3, 2001, Reuters, Philippine Kidnappers Slip Away, Some Hostages Free, by Erik de Castro,
June 3, 2001, New York Times, Rebel Kidnappers Flee in Philippines, As So Do Some Hostages,
June 4, 2001, New York Times, Eluding Army, Philippine Rebels Return to Jungle With Hostages,
November 27, 2001, Associated Press, Filipino rebels swap 89 hostages for freedom, by Bullit Marquez,

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April 18, 2000, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Now, Abu Sayyaf threatens to kill, kidnap Americans, by Julie Alipala-Inot,

THE ABU Sayyaf threatened yesterday to kill or kidnap Americans unless the Arab mastermind behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and two other Muslim extremists held in US jails are freed in exchange for 30 hostages.

"We are warning the United States that if they ignore our demands, we will kill every American who sets foot in this province," Abu Sayyaf spokesman Abu Ahmad Salayuddin said in a telephone interview with the INQUIRER. In a TV interview, he said: "We will kidnap or, if not, we will kill every American we see in the Philippines."

He wanted President Estrada, who has called the Abu Sayyaf "out of their minds," to ask US President Bill Clinton to free the three jailed Muslims, including terrorist Ramzi Yousef, who is serving life plus 240 years for masterminding the 1993 bombing in New York.

Salayuddin said the rebels would wait for Clinton's response, but warned in a radio interview: "The Americans, too, have wronged us many times. This is not just a threat...Our demands are real. We're not joking." US Embassy officials in Manila declined to comment on the Abu Sayyaf demands, while foreign affairs spokesman George Reyes said that "the threat is still being evaluated."

But Basilan Gov. Wahab Akbar gave the rebels until the end of the month to free the 30 remaining hostages or face an armed assault by a 500-strong vigilante group, which the governor promised to personally lead. "This is an ultimatum. Either the rebels free all hostages or face an all-out assault. We will not tolerate terrorism in the province," said Akbar's spokesman, Hader Glang.

Salayuddin laughed off Akbar's ultimatum, saying: "If they had wanted to (launch an assault), they should have done so before. He's just trying to scare us." The Abu Sayyaf spokesman said the group's five demands sent to President Estrada through actor, ex-convict and Muslim convert Robin Padilla were non-negotiable.

"I gave Padilla 10 days starting last Sunday, to relay to President Estrada our demands. After the Holy Week or on April 26 or 27, Padilla will come back here to relay the results of our demands," he said.

New demand

Salayuddin yesterday added a new demand--for the ambassador of a European country and the envoys from four Muslim nations to go to the Abu Sayyaf jungle camp to help in the negotiations.

The Abu Sayyaf has also revived its threat to behead seven male hostages if its demands are not met. Apart from the release of Yousef, the rebels have demanded the freedom of a Muslim cleric jailed for conspiring to bomb New York City sites and a former teacher of Abu Sayyaf leader Khaddafy Janjalani.

They have also made several other demands, including the removal of Christian crosses from Basilan, Tawi-Tawi and Sulu and the release of two Abu Sayyaf members being held in Basilan and in Zamboanga.

According to Armed Forces spokesman Col. Rafael Romero, the Armed Forces is waiting for the Crisis Management Committee (CMC) in Basilan to complete attempts to negotiate before taking matters into its hands. ''The military is the final option," Romero said.

News blackout

The rebels have said they would invite journalists to witness the beheading of the male hostages if their demands are not met. Reacting to the latest Abu Sayyaf threats, Romero suggested a news blackout on the hostage crisis. "The more airtime you give to these crazy people, the more crazy we'll all become," Romero said in a radio interview. "These pronouncements are meant to terrorize people and they're using the media to do this."

Romero said a news blackout on the Abu Sayyaf would deprive it of its psychological artillery. "Every terrorist's main weapon is to strike fear in the hearts of every person and they use the media," he said. "The best thing here is to cut off the media so that they no longer have exposure. Nobody will listen to them then."

So far, the Abu Sayyaf has gotten its demand for Padilla to be included in the negotiations and for a large supply of rice. "We feel that these people should no longer be given as much mileage as they are getting now," Romero said. "The whole thing has turned into a circus."

Abu sneers at parents

But he also endorsed the plan by relatives of the hostages to march to Camp Abdurajak on Mt. Mahadji to offer themselves in exchange for their loved ones. "Not only the relatives should go but the entire town should march and camp there," Romero said. "The whole town should be outraged." "It will change the situation. The more the better," he added.

But Salayuddin warned the relatives, many of them parents of 17 children hostages, that "they will just contribute to the problem. They will just worsen it." He added:

"But if they want, we'll have more hostages here, so if I were they, I would wait." Mr. Estrada on Saturday said the government would not compromise with the Moro separatists and promised to "teach them a lesson."

Toll on the children

The four-week crisis in the hinterlands of Basilan has taken its toll on the children, and 10 of the 17 young hostages are suffering from diarrhea and vomiting. "If something happens to these children, it isn't our fault," Salayuddin said.

The CMC, he said, was to blame for the children's condition because the government allegedly sent seven sacks of rice that were rotten. Salayuddin said the children started to fall ill after the delivery of seven sacks of rice on April 12. But Basilan Vice Gov. Bonnie Balamo, CMC chair, said the children became sick from drinking polluted water at the mountain camp.

Cris Puno, CMC spokesman, said the Abu Sayyaf had asked for a doctor and a Red Cross volunteer to treat seven children who were sick. But the committee told the Abu Sayyaf to allow the sick children to leave so that they could be given proper medical attention. "We have asked them to free the hostages so that they can be given treatment in the hospital because we don't have any hospital facilities in the mountains," Puno said on local television.

Still keeping distance

Despite the President's statements that government would not give in the "impossible" demands, Malacañang yesterday reiterated that it would leave the hostage crisis in the hands of the CMC.

Press Secretary Ricardo "Dong" Puno said that the President was concerned over the safety of the hostages and that the priority was to "resolve the situation in a peaceful manner."

"The position of the administration as well as the national security adviser (is to resolve the crisis) at the level of the Crisis Management Committee in Basilan," Puno said.

A senator yesterday told National Security Adviser Alexander Aguirre to resign in the face of the worsening security situation in Mindanao. (See related story on Page 2.) Puno said the President had instructed concerned authorities to "exhaust all peaceful means" in handling the nearly month-old hostage crisis. The 30 hostages have been held at Camp Abdurajak since March 20.

Killer and more

Supt. Ahmadul Pangambayan, Basilan provincial police director, told the Inquirer that the demand to free two Abu Sayyaf members detained in the provincial jail was "impossible" to meet. Hadjirul Ampul, 22, younger brother of slain Abu Sayyaf member Bashirul Ampul, is charged with multiple murder, kidnapping with ransom, murder, and kidnapping with serious illegal detention.

"He was the sixth most wanted person in the province and number 17 at the regional level," the officer said. Ampul was positively identified as the man who lobbed a grenade at the Isabela police station on Feb. 4, killing one and wounding eight. Ustadz Patta Saang is facing a charge of illegal possession of firearms.

With reports from Donna Cueto; Donna Pazzibugan; AFP

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March 21, 2001, Reuters, Filipino rebels escape with hostages amid fighting,

LAMITAN (Philippines), June 3: Muslim rebels, using child hostages as human shields, broke through a military cordon around a hospital in the southern Philippines on Sunday and escaped with American and Filipino captives, officials said, reports Reuters.

But just hours later, fighting had resumed in hills two miles away. Nearby, troops found the headless bodies of two Filipino hostages, apparently killed by the rebels some days ago, military officials said.

Five Filipinos, from among 20 people kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf rebels seven days ago from an island resort, escaped during the overnight confusion as the bandits slipped out of a hospital and a church that they had seized on Basilan island.

Four other captives had escaped during the fighting in Lamitan town, on Basilan's northern coast, on Saturday. Troops found the headless bodies of two Filipino men in the jungles near Lamitan and officials said the victims were among the initial 20 hostages.

Local television named one as a security guard at the Dos Palmas island resort and said the other had not been identified.

"Both of them were headless," Basilan governor Wahab Akbar told the news agency. "The bodies were decomposed. Officials suspect the two men were killed before the rebels swarmed into Lamitan early on Saturday. The guerrillas were holed up there for over 24 hours before shooting their way through a military cordon, dragging along with them the remainder of the Dos Palmas hostages and several other captives, including nurses.

"They covered their escape with a heavy volume of fire and then used children and other hostages as human shields," Brigadier-General Edilberto Adan told reporters in Manila. "Our troops withheld their fire...(even if) they saw rebels moving because some of the hostages might be hit," Adan said, explaining how they were able to get through the military cordon.

The military said at least 16 soldiers have been killed since fighting began in the hills outside Lamitan on Friday. Several civilians and rebels have also died, but there were no confirmed numbers.

One army captain was killed in the rebels' escape near the hospital compound, when a rocket fired from a rebel launcher blasted his armoured car.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who has taken a tough line on the kidnappings, vowed there would be no let-up in the military operation and repeated that no ransoms would be paid.

"We will negotiate only for the unconditional release of the hostages... The purpose is to convince them (the rebels) that this is the best thing they can do because the alternative for them is worse," she told Manila radio dzRH.

The sight of a hospital building and a church with glass windows shattered and walls peppered with bullets greeted armed forces chief General Diomedio Villanueva when he visited Lamitan after the rebels had left.

Roads outside the compound were pockmarked with craters, caused either by rockets fired by air force helicopters or by the rebels. The bodies of two soldiers and an altar boy lay near the church.

Residents said they saw the guerrillas slipping out of the hospital compound after they had set fire to four nearby houses to divert military attention. A power outage had plunged the town into darkness.

"We were separated from the other hostages when the rebels were making their getaway," Janice Go, one of the five who escaped, told RMN radio. "They took the Americans with them."

Another escapee, Teresa Ganzon, appealed to the military to stop firing while the rebels were still holding hostages.

Arroyo, an admirer of Britain's "Iron Lady" Margaret Thatcher, dismisses the rebels as a bandit gang and has vowed to crush them, offering them a choice between death and surrender.

The Abu Sayyaf is one of two groups fighting for an Islamic state in the south of the mainly Roman Catholic country but its main pursuit appears to be kidnap for ransom. Adan said six soldiers were killed in fighting around the hospital, raising military casualties in the rescue operation to 16 dead with more than 35 wounded.

"We have had no sightings of the Americans so far," he said. Some of the hostages taken from the hospital included nurses, staff and "some patients," Adan said.

The three Americans, who were among the 20 tourists and resort workers taken from an island resort near Palawan. They include a missionary couple and a tourist.

Two priests caught inside the church during the rebel attack escaped. "I was able to run away... I leapt over the wall and hid," Father Cirilo Nacorda said.

"The ideology of a paradise is difficult to fight," Akbar said, commenting on the rebels' escape. The governor was referring to a rebel belief that to die for Islam brings a place in paradise.

PHOTO CAPTION

Filipino soldiers carry their wounded colleague during a gun battle with Abu Sayyaf Muslim rebels in Lamitan town in the southern Philippines June 2, 2001. The Muslim rebels, trying to shake off pursuing Philippine soldiers, took over a church and a hospital in Lamitan on Saturday and said they held 200 hostages, including doctors, patients and a priest. (Erik De Castro/Reuters)

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June 1, 2001, Agence France Presse, Two Philippine soldiers dead, 21 people hurt in clash with kidnappers,
Friday, 7:49 PM,

BASILAN, Philippines, June 1 (AFP) - Two Philippine soldiers were killed and 21 other people were wounded in a gunfight on Friday as security forces caught up with Abu Sayyaf guerrillas holding 20 hostages including three Americans, officials said.

The Muslim rebels said two of the hostages were wounded in the three-hour clash in the southern island of Basilan, but the military dismissed the claim.

Military spokesmen said two soldiers were killed and 14 other armymen were wounded when the platoon ran into about 100 guerrillas at their jungle camp. There was no word on possible casualties among the hostages and gunmen.

Local officials listed seven civilians injured, all hit with shrapnel apparently from wayward shells. The army denied using artillery.

"The defense perimeter of this kidnapping group for the temporary base that they have established must have been breached by our troops," Brigadier General Edilberto Adan Adan said in Manila.

The firefight was the first contact of any sort with the kidnappers since they seized tourists in an upmarket resort off the western island of Palawan on Sunday and fled southeast by boat across the Sulu Sea.

Adan said troops and air support are rushing to cordon off a 180 square-kilometer (72 square-mile) area, while naval vessels would quarantine the 1,300 square-kilometer island. He gave no timetable for the operation.

Abu Sayyaf spokesman Abu Sabaya renewed a threat to slaughter the hostages.

President Gloria Arroyo's spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao said they want unspecified cash for the victims, who include US couple Martin and Gracia Burnham, Kansas natives doing Christian missionary work in the Philippines, and Californian Guillermo Sobrero.

Sobrero was born in Peru and became a naturalized American just three weeks ago, the Peruvian embassy in Manila said.

About 1,200 US troops including elite Marines and Navy SEALs began annual naval maneuvers with local troops off the northern Philippines on Friday, but Manila insists none of them are involved in the rescue attempt.

"No assistance from the United States is being received at this time," Adan said.

Using a satellite telephone, Abu Sayyaf spokesman Sabaya called up a radio station in nearby Zamboanga city to report that troops "opened fire on the Abu Sayyaf and the hostages (who were) bathing and swimming in the river."

One of the women hostages, Teresa Ganzon said: "Please refrain from this military action that has made us so afraid. These encounters are going to cost us our lives."

But Adan said "we are not thinking of a cessation of hostilities here. We want to maintain contact with this terrorist group so they cannot escape."

Tiglao said a government "intermediary" is in contact with the kidnappers, who "sent a message that, as we always have known, this has always been for ransom money."

But he ruled out ransom and said the government would talk to them only "if they would be willing to lay down their arms or release their hostages."

The 1,100-member Abu Sayyaf are self-styled Muslim separatists who engage in bombings and kidnappings in a campaign to set up an Islamic state in the southern third of the mainly Roman Catholic Philippines.

They seized 21 people including 10 western tourists from the Malaysian resort of Sipadan last year and shipped them to Jolo island in the southern Philippines, ransoming off all but one of them for millions of dollars.

They beheaded two Filipino hostages during a military a rescue attempt in Basilan last year.

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June 1, 2001, Reuters, Philippine troops attack hostage takers,
6:55 PM

ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (Reuters) - Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo launched a military assault on Muslim rebels holding at least 20 hostages, including three Americans, on Friday and vowed not to back down.

A spokesman for the Abu Sayyaf rebel group told a radio station by telephone that two of the hostages had been killed in fighting with government forces and other hostages would be executed if the military continued its offensive.

But Arroyo stood firm saying her government would never surrender to lawlessness.

"Military operations is the only option," Arroyo told Reuters in an interview as relatives of some of the hostages pleaded for a halt to the offensive, saying more lives would be lost.

"If the bandits find it in their hearts that they will surrender their hostages unconditionally, then that is the other option," said Arroyo, who named Margaret Thatcher, Golda Meir and Queen Elizabeth I as strong women leaders she admired.

Asked about possible casualties among the hostages, she said: "I don't think it's wise to be discussing the consequences."

"We are showing the world we are enforcing the law. That is our response. We are not surrendering to lawless elements. We have a job to do and we are going to do it as best we can."

TWO SOLDIERS KILLED

The military said it had no reports that any of the hostages -- three Americans and 17 Filipinos seized on an an island resort on Sunday -- were hurt in the fighting that began early on Friday in mountainous jungle on Basilan island in the country's south.

Two soldiers were killed and 14 wounded in the three-hour battle but there was no sign of the hostages, officers said.

The battle was the first encounter between the guerrillas and soldiers who had been hunting for them over scores of islands since the hostages were taken.

About 100 guerrillas were involved in the clashes and several of them were killed, the military said.

Military commanders said they had captured an Abu Sayyaf camp on Friday and the rebels were fleeing with their captives towards another stronghold atop a 567-metre (1,900 foot) mountain on Basilan, 900 km (550 miles) south of Manila.

After the guerrillas abandoned their camp, sporadic shooting continued as soldiers gave chase.

The rebel spokesman did not say which two hostages had been killed in the fighting.

The sounds of gunfire could be heard in the background during his call, which was broadcast live.

A Filipino woman, who sounded close to tears and told a radio station she was one of the hostages, appealed to the armed forces to halt the assault.

"We are all right but these encounters are going to cost us our lives. We have children with us. I beg of you to please consider, to just sit down on the negotiating table and try and find a way to get everybody out safely," she said.

She said the three American hostages, who include a missionary couple, were with her group.

NO HEAVY WEAPONS

More than 2,000 soldiers were being deployed to surround the rebels and stop them escaping with their hostages, but armed forces spokesman Brigadier-General Edilberto Adan said it could take days to cordon off the 10 km (six miles) by 18 km (11 miles) zone of rugged terrain.

"It is jungle terrain where visibility is poor... You won't see anything 15 metres (yards) ahead of you," he said. "No heavy weapons are being used here. We are not using artillery so as to make sure that we only hit the terrorists."

The Abu Sayyaf has an avowed goal of establishing an independent Muslim homeland in the south of the mainly Roman Catholic country, but its main interest appears to be kidnapping.

Last year, they seized more than 40 foreigners and Filipinos from Jolo and nearby Malaysian resorts. All but one Filipino were freed, after payment of ransoms reputedly totalling $20 million, or escaped.

Abu Sayyaf spokesman Abu Sabaya did not say which hostages had been killed on Friday or make clear whether they were among the three Americans and 17 Filipinos abducted on Sunday.

Sabaya said the group had kidnapped another 10 people, mostly fishermen, since Sunday, evading a dragnet spread by the military to intercept them.

The Abu Sayyaf has made unfounded claims in the past that hostages they were holding had died in clashes. They have also threatened to kill hostages without doing so but executed two teachers last year after kidnapping students and staff from two high schools on Basilan.

"The Philippine government does not seem to care about the hostages... why should we?" Sabaya said on Friday. He said if the assault continued they would begin executing hostages: "They are no relations of ours."

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June 3, 2001, Reuters, Philippine Kidnappers Slip Away, Some Hostages Free, by Erik de Castro, Sunday, 3:04 AM ET

LAMITAN, Philippines (Reuters) - Muslim rebels, using child hostages as human shields, broke through a military cordon in the southern Philippines on Sunday and escaped with their American and Filipino captives into the jungle, officials said.

But just hours later fighting had resumed in the hills two miles away, military officials said.

Five Filipinos from among 20 people kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf rebels a week ago from an island resort escaped during the overnight confusion as the bandits slipped out of a hospital and a Catholic church that they had seized on Basilan island.

Four other captives had escaped during the fighting on Saturday.

"They covered their escape with a heavy volume of fire and then used children and other hostages as human shields," Brigadier-General Edilberto Adan told reporters in Manila.

"Our troops withheld their fire ...(even if) they saw rebels moving because some of the hostages might be hit," Adan said, explaining why they were able to get through the military cordon.

"There are no reports of hostages being injured," he said.

The rebels, numbering 60 to 100 slipped into the jungle near Lamitan, a bustling market town 550 miles south of Manila, where they had held up since Saturday.

The rebels, armed with assault rifles and rocket launchers, took with them the remaining 11 of their 20 hostages and at least five captives taken from the hospital, the military said.

One army captain was killed in the rebels' escape near the hospital compound, when a rocket fired from rebel launcher blasted his armored car.

ARROYO TAKES TOUGH LINE

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who has taken a tough line on the kidnappings, vowed there would be no let-up in the military operation and repeated that no ransoms would be paid.

"We will negotiate only for the unconditional release of the hostages...The purpose is to convince them (the rebels) that this is the best thing they can do because the alternative for them is worse," she told Manila radio dzRH.

The sight of a hospital building and a church with glass windows shattered and walls peppered with bullets greeted armed forces chief General Diomedio Villanueva when he visited the scene after the rebels had left.

Roads outside the compound were pockmarked with craters, caused either by rockets fired by air force helicopters or by the rebels.

The bodies of two soldiers and an alter boy lay near the church.

Residents said they saw the guerrillas slipping out of the hospital compound through the darkness after they had set fire to four nearby houses to divert military attention. A power outage had plunged the town into darkness.

"We were separated from the other hostages when the rebels were making their getaway," Janice Go, one of the five who escaped, told RMN radio. "They took the Americans with them."

PLEAS FROM HOSTAGES

Another escapee, Teresa Ganzon, appealed to the military to stop firing while the rebels were still holding hostages.

Arroyo, an admirer of Britain's "Iron Lady" Margaret Thatcher, dismisses the rebels as a bandit gang and has vowed to crush them, offering them a choice between death and surrender.

The Abu Sayyaf is one of two groups who say they are fighting for an Islamic state in the south of the mainly Roman Catholic country but its main pursuit appears to be kidnap for ransom.

Adan said six soldiers were killed in fighting around the hospital, raising military casualties in the rescue operation to 16 dead with more than 35 wounded.

"We have had no sightings of the Americans so far," he said.

Some of the hostages taken from the hospital include staff and "some patients," Adan said.

The three Americans, who were among the 20 tourists and resort workers taken from an island resort near Palawan. They include a missionary couple.

Two priests caught inside the church during the rebel attack escaped. "I was able to run away... I leapt over the wall and hid," Father Cirilo Nacorda said.

"The ideology of a paradise is difficult to fight," Basilan Governor Wahab Akbar said, commenting on the rebels' escape. He was referring a rebel belief that to die for Islam brings a place in paradise.

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June 3, 2001, New York Times, Rebel Kidnappers Flee in Philippines, As So Do Some Hostages,


Firing wildly, Muslim separatist rebels eluded scores of army troops surrounding the hospital where they had holed up here, fleeing into the jungle, officials and witnesses said today. With them were some of the hostages they had grabbed from a resort last week.

The governor of Basilan Island, Wahad Akbar, said the Abu Sayyaf rebels fled this town early today, covering themselves with volleys of gunfire. It was not clear how many hostages the rebels took with them into the jungle-covered mountains.

The country's national security adviser, Roilo Golez, confirmed the guerrillas' escape on Basilan, which is two miles wide and three miles long.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo today reiterated her no-ransom policy.

"We will negotiate for their unconditional release, but no ransom," she said of the hostages. "Negotiation is always part of military action, to convince them the alternative is worse: Die now or face due process later."

Five hostages among the 20 who were seized on May 27 escaped early today under cover of darkness from a hospital here, an army spokesman, Brig. Gen. Edilberto Adan, said. Four hostages had escaped the besieged hospital on Saturday.
The escape of 9 hostages over the weekend leaves uncounted for 11 people seized from a western beach resort a week ago -- including three Americans.

Teresa Ganzon, one of the resort hostages who escaped today, appealed to the government to negotiate for the release of her captive colleagues.

"I'm appealing to the government to stop the military operation and look for another solution to the problem," she said. "The hostages will have a hard time because they know nothing about the jungle."

The Abu Sayyaf added to their hostages on Saturday when they invaded a hospital here, abducting priests, doctors and patients. The army soon surrounded the hospital.

One priest, Cirilo Nacorda, told a local radio station that he escaped the hospital today after hiding in a bathroom on Saturday. He said four nuns hid in the basement amid heavy fighting and escaped after the Abu Sayyaf fled.

Alton Angeles, a former town councilor in Lamitan, said fighting raged until about 3 a.m. this morning, then stopped.

"It subsided and when the sun went up and smoke cleared the rebels were no longer there," Mr. Angeles said. He said he saw four dead bodies around the hospital.

"I warned the army last night to watch out because they will be able to slip through the cordon," Governor Akbar told RMN radio today. "I can see the morale of the Abu Sayyaf group is very high, and the morale of the soldiers very weak."

Fighting between the soldiers and the guerrillas raged for three days, starting on Friday in a nearby jungle. The military said that 7 soldiers were killed and 75 were wounded in the first two days of fighting.

"We will finish off all the bandits if they don't surrender at the earliest possible time," Mrs. Arroyo said in a radio address on Saturday. "To the Abu Sayyaf: You have nowhere else to run and it would be best for you to release those whom you've kidnapped. You're just one more bullet,"

The rebels had eluded a concentrated search until they clashed with army forces in the rugged jungles of Basilan on Friday. The fighting then spread to the streets of Lamitan, which is about 560 miles south of the capital, Manila.

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June 4, 2001, New York Times, Eluding Army, Philippine Rebels Return to Jungle With Hostages,

Philippine rebels, aided by reinforcements, broke through an army siege today and fled back into the jungle with numerous hostages, including three Americans.

The nighttime escape from a hospital that the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas had seized the day before -- possibly in search of medicine and doctors to aid wounded comrades -- dashed hopes that the hostages would be rescued quickly.

In the chaos of assaults by the military and the guerrillas' hasty departure, 9 of the group's original 20 hostages, taken a week ago from a beach resort hundreds of miles away, managed to escape.

But the rebels also took an unknown number of new hostages from the hospital, including a doctor and his wife. And the bodies of two Filipino hostages taken at the resort were found outside the town, one of them beheaded.

The three Americans -- Guillermo Sobero of Corona, Calif., and two missionaries, Martin and Gracia Burnham of Wichita, Kan. -- were still among the captives, witnesses in the hospital said.

After withstanding attacks by helicopter gunships firing rockets, about 60 rebels trapped in the hospital used the hostages as shields to escape. To provide them with cover, about 100 other guerrillas attacked soldiers from nearby jungle, inflicting heavy casualties, said Brig. Gen. Edilberto Adan.

"Fresh terrorist troops under cover of darkness used diversionary tactics to distract the troops," General Adan said, adding that his men had limited their fire for fear of hitting hostages.

Fighting was reported today in at least five villages surrounding Lamitan, a town council member told RMN radio.

General Adan said the beheaded captive found outside the town was identified as Armando Bayona, a guard at the Dos Palmas beach resort, where the guerrillas seized 17 Filipinos and 3 Americans a week ago. The police said it appeared that Mr. Bayona and the other dead captive had been killed days earlier because their bodies were badly decomposed.

The Abu Sayyaf say they are fighting for a separate Muslim state in the mostly Roman Catholic Philippines. The government regards the group merely as bandits.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo repeated her no-ransom policy today.

"We will negotiate for their unconditional release, but no ransom," she said. "Negotiation is always part of military action, to convince them the alternative is worse: die now or face due process later."

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November 27, 2001, Associated Press, Filipino rebels swap 89 hostages for freedom, by Bullit Marquez,

Rescue follows pounding by planes and helicopters

ZAMBOANGA, Philippines -- Heavily armed Muslim rebels released 89 hostages early today in exchange for safe passage through Philippine military forces that have besieged them for more than 24 hours.

They freed a group of 21 hostages earlier. Then, after enduring a series of assaults by warplanes, helicopter gunships and infantry and wading through all-night negotiations, about 250 rebels loyal to renegade Muslim region Gov. Nur Misuari left on trucks to another guerrilla base.

They left behind the hostages, and government negotiators took custody of the 55 men, 25 women and nine children early today.

An airport bus was brought in to take away the dazed captives -- most barefoot and still in the nightclothes they were wearing when they were seized about 36 hours earlier. Some were smiling. Others were crying. Army doctors and nurses were waiting to provide medical checkups.

Military spokesman Lt. Col. Danilo Servando said the rebels were going to a rebel base near the town of Taguite, about 40 miles to the north.

Under the agreement, the military also freed about 10 rebels captured in fighting yesterday.

Rebel leader Julhambri Misuari, nephew of the arrested governor, told DZMM radio that he was releasing the hostages in exchange for a guarantee of safe passage.

"As of this time we will not file criminal charges," said military spokesman Brig. Gen. Edilberto Adan. "It's up to the police really."

Police Supt. Demetrio Maylas Jr. said police and soldiers would escort the guerrillas -- who were still armed with grenade launchers, machine guns and assault rifles -- out of Zamboanga.

The rebels seized the hostages, including entire families, from communities close to the Cabatangan Muslim regional government compound, where the rebels were holed up in a heavily fortified base that was surrounded by the military. The guerrillas moved the hostages yesterday to several houses in the nearby Pasonanca district on the outskirts of Zamboanga, a city of 750,000.

About 80 guerrillas guarded the hostages while another unit battled troops at the sprawling Cabatangan compound nearby that was pounded by bomber aircraft and helicopter gunships.

Fighting ended around dawn today and the two rebel units were allowed to merge before handing over the hostages and leaving.

The fighting left 25 guerrillas, one soldier and one civilian dead and an unknown number of others wounded, including 19 civilians, Adan said.

The rebels belong to a faction of a separatist Muslim group, the Moro National Liberation Front, that fought the government until a peace deal was struck five years ago.

Nur Misuari -- who lost the MNLF leadership earlier this year and was about to lose the governor's post -- has been charged with rebellion for allegedly fomenting an attack last week on an army base to disrupt elections for his successor. He was arrested Saturday in Malaysian waters while fleeing the Philippines, and his followers had been told Monday to leave the government complex without their weapons. Most refused. The wrenchingly poor southern Philippines is home to the predominantly Roman Catholic country's 5 million-strong Muslim minority and has repeatedly been the site of bloody conflict for decades.

Florita Orquito, a 43-year-old hostage who escaped amid the fighting, told reporters the rebels moved quietly in the middle of the night into neighborhoods near the 150-acre government complex where they had been allowed to have a base and took hostages before gunfire and explosions began rocking the city.

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