Islamic militants in the Philippines have agreed to release one of three kidnapped aid workers following deadly clashes with advancing troops, a Red Cross official said.
Senator Richard Gordon, who heads the local Red Cross chapter, told AFP the military was preparing to “reposition” its troops on southern Jolo island to allow for a transfer to take place.
Gordon said he secured the commitment to free one hostage from Abu Sayyaf leader Albader Parad late on Wednesday, prompting him to hold emergency meetings with top defense and military officials.
“The military is going to redeploy out of the area so one of our associates can get out,” Gordon said.
“Soon as they pull out, the ICRC individual is going to go out,” he added, referring to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
He said it was unclear which of the ICRC workers — Mary Jean Lacaba of the Philippines, Andreas Notter of Switzerland and Eugenio Vagni of Italy — would be first out but it would be the one most in need of medical attention.
Previous reports have said Vagni, 62, has a heart condition.
Gordon said it was also unclear when the actual handover would take place, but stressed troops were now preparing to move.
He added that as soon as one hostage is freed, a former Muslim separatist leader would act as a negotiator for further talks to get the other two out.
“We don’t want any more incidents to happen that will thwart” the release, Gordon said.
The Abu Sayyaf, or “bearers of the sword,” is the smallest but most radical of several Islamic militant groups in the southern Philippines.
Set up with funds from the al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden, it has been accused of the worst terror attacks in the Philippines, including a February 2004 ferry bombing in Manila which claimed more than 100 lives.
It is on the US government’s list of foreign terrorist organizations.
The group has kidnapped dozens of foreigners over the years and is blamed for the deaths of two Americans seized at a resort in 2001, one of whom was beheaded.
In a statement, the military said it had agreed to reposition its forces, but stressed it would not pull out totally from the jungle where the hostages are being kept.
“The safety of the ICRC workers remains the paramount concern,” it said. “If to ensure this we must adjust our deployment, then we will do so.”
It promised to “reposition our troops as necessary to allow the exhaustion of other peaceful means for the safe release of victims.”
Troops have been closing in on the Abu Sayyaf group, resulting in two days of clashes on Monday and Tuesday that left three Marines and two militants dead and 19 soldiers wounded.
The military believes one of those injured among the militants was Parad, whose group snatched the ICRC workers while they were on a mission on Jolo on Jan. 15.
Gordon had earlier chastised the military for conducting what he called an ill-conceived rescue operation that had put the hostages’ lives in danger.
Earlier, the ICRC issued a statement from Geneva saying it had “taken note of the direct threats” by the Abu Sayyaf and appealed to them not to harm the abductees.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS