Syrian rebels fail to free 21 Filipino peacekeepers
By Matikas Santos
The expected release of the 21 Filipino United Nations (UN) peacekeepers being held hostage by rebels in Syria did not happen, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Friday.
The expected release of the 21 Filipino United Nations (UN) peacekeepers being held hostage by rebels in Syria did not happen, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Friday.
The seven Japanese survivors of the Algerian hostage crisis, and nine of the 10 dead, arrived back in a shell-shocked Japan Friday as the prime minister spoke of the nation’s “deepest grief”.
Estrella Santiago refuses to totally believe that her husband Iluminado—Bong to family and friends—was among the Filipinos killed by al-Qaeda-linked terrorists in Algeria last week.
Islamic militants used foreign hostages as human shields to stop Algerian troops aboard helicopters from strafing them with gunfire. This was the account of survivor Joseph Balmaceda who arrived in Manila Monday.
Algeria’s special forces stormed a natural gas complex in the middle of the Sahara desert on Saturday in a “final assault” aimed at ending a four-day-old hostage crisis, the state news agency reported. It said 11 extremists and seven hostages were killed.
The Department of Foreign Affairs has sent to Algeria a team of officials from the Philippine Embassy in Tripoli to monitor the hostage crisis at a gas plant there, where a still undetermined number of Filipinos are feared to remain captive.
The fate of Filipino and other foreign hostages seized at a gas plant in the Algerian desert hung in the balance on Saturday, as their Islamist captors demanded a prisoner swap and an end to French military action in Mali.
The Philippine government has received reports that more than 20 of its nationals were among the foreign hostages seized by Islamist gunmen in Algeria, a foreign department spokesman said Friday.
Foreign Minister Bob Carr on Thursday welcomed news that Australian Warren Richard Rodwell was alive after being held hostage by Abu Sayyaf bandits for more than a year in the Philippines, but said his prolonged captivity was a “major concern.”
With Mother’s Day less than a week away, Aurora Gonzales is counting on being reunited by then with her seafarer-son, the longest held Filipino hostage of Somali pirates.
MANILA, Philippines—Angry relatives of eight Hong Kong tourists killed in a Philippine bus hostage fiasco demanded Monday compensation and a direct apology from President Benigno Aquino. In a press conference in Manila on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the hostage taking, Lee Mei-chun, whose son was among those slain, wailed in despair as [...]
MANILA, Philippines — Victims’ families and survivors of last year’s hostage drama that left eight Hong Kong tourists and their attacker dead in a botched police rescue say they are still awaiting an apology and compensation from the Philippines. A weeping mother of a slain tourist guide told reporters in Manila on Monday that “the [...]
