Filipino hostage-takers behead four

The Philippine government has vowed to crush the Abu Sayyaf

By Rufi Vigilar
Special to CNN

MANILA, Philippines (CNN) -- Suspected Abu Sayyaf kidnappers have seized more hostages and beheaded four of them in the southern Philippines.

The hostages were beheaded on Thursday night as the kidnappers fled a town in Basilan province, according to Armed Forces vice chief of staff Gen. Jose Calimlim.

Officials said a group of armed men went to Lamitan in Basilan, kidnapping about 30 people, who were all Filipinos with a Christian group.

Three buildings were also set on fire.

Lamitan is the same town where in early June the Abu Sayyaf took about 200 people hostage at a church and hospital compound. The bandits held them for a several days before a bloody shootout with the military.

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Officials said the Tausug dialect the kidnappers spoke and the method by which they abducted and executed their victims were typical of the Abu Sayyaf.

The Abu Sayyaf styles itself as a Muslim separatist group but has been dismissed by the government as a "bandit gang."

The latest kidnapping and beheadings follow last May's abduction of 20 hostages, including three Americans, from an upmarket resort in the western Philippine province of Palawan.

The Abu Sayyaf slipped through a military cordon in June during the seige at the hospital in Basilan, then fled with about two dozen more hostages.

Four of those hostages have been beheaded and the condition of the others remains unknown.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo repeated her vow to crush the Abu Sayyaf during her first state of the nation address on July 23, but did not set a deadline for subduing them.

The jungle terrain and the secret assistance of Basilan residents, who are either blood relations or sympathetic to the Abu Sayyaf's declared cause, has hampered military search and rescue operations.

Outnumbered by troops

The military has deployed some 5,000 troops in Basilan -- twice the number of the Abu Sayyaf's estimated strength.

The government has arrested about a hundred Abu Sayyaf sympathizers but their trials have been postponed because a proper venue still has to be found.

Local officials in the southern city of Zamboanga have objected to hearings being held there, citing risks to peace and order.

The Abu Sayyaf gained international notoriety last year when it abducted more than 40 Westerners and Asians in a four-month hostage crisis.

Defense secretary Gen. Angelo Reyes said that millions of dollars in ransom changed hands and the money was used by the kidnappers to buy more arms.