Troops rescue Vietnamese hostage from Abu captors

Philippine troops have rescued a Vietnamese sailor held hostage for seven months by the extremist Abu Sayyaf bandits in Mindanao, the military said Saturday.

Hoang Vo, 28, was rescued by troops on Friday after an air strike and artillery fire mounted against Abu Sayyaf members holding camp in Basilan, regional military spokeswoman Captain Jo-Ann Petinglay said.

The bombardment reportedly dispersed the kidnappers, giving Vo the time to leave his captors, Petinglay said.

She added the sailor was being treated for an unspecified wound on his back.

There is no way to independently verify the military’s account of the rescue.

The Abu Sayyaf network has been kidnapping foreigners and locals for years and holding them for ransom on its remote island strongholds in the southern Philippines.

Vo was seized last November along with five other Vietnamese crew members of a vessel that was boarded by the militants off Sibago island in the southern region of Mindanao.

A statement issued by the military’s regional command based in Zamboanga City said Abu Sayyaf militants are holding a total of 26 hostages, including several foreigners, in Sulu and Basilan.

The Abu Sayyaf is known to behead its hostages unless ransom payments are made.

German national Jurgen Kantner, 70, was beheaded earlier this year after the kidnappers’ demand for P30 million ($600,000) was not met.

Last year, the Abu Sayyaf also beheaded two Canadian hostages.

The Abu Sayyaf, originally a loose network of militants formed in the 1990s with seed money from Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network, has splintered into factions, with some continuing to engage in banditry and kidnappings.

One faction led by Isnilon Hapilon has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) group, with members among those holding parts of Marawi, the largely Catholic nation’s most important Islamic city, where the government has launched air strikes and deployed artillery and ground forces against them. JPV