Military closing in on Vagni kidnappers

abs-cbnNEWS.com | 06/15/2009 2:55 PM

MANILA - Government troops are closing in on a group of Abu Sayyaf extremists holding hostage Italian aid worker Eugenio Vagni in the hinterlands of Jolo, a military spokesman said Monday.

Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner, Armed Forces spokesman, said the recent series of encounters in Indanan, Sulu is part of rescue operations for Vagni.

"The group that we encountered is the same group that is holding Vagni. Unfortunately, we did not see Vagni in the encounter site but we believe he was with the group but was transferred during the encounter. We still believe he is unable to walk and that his captors are carrying him around," Brawner told ANC television.

He said the military could not mount a full offensive against the extremist group for fear of injuring Vagni.

He added that the military has proof of life of Vagni, debunking rumors that the Italian was killed in the recent encounters between security forces and the Abu Sayyaf.

Vagni was seized along with fellow International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) colleagues Andreas Notter of Switzerland and Mary Jean Lacaba of the Philippines in early January while on a humanitarian mission on Jolo. Notter and Lacaba were released in April.

Formed in the early 1990s ostensibly to fight for an Islamic state in the south, the Abu Sayyaf over the years has increasingly turned to kidnapping.

It is on the US government's list of foreign terrorist organizations, and has been blamed for high profile kidnappings and the country's worst militant attacks, including a 2004 bombing of a ferry that left over 100 dead. With Agence France-Presse

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