GEN - Military Rescues American Hostage

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Apr 12, 2001 - 10:18 AM

Military Rescues U.S. Hostage By Paul Alexander Associated Press Writer

MANILA, Philippines (AP) - Commandos burst into a jungle hide-out on Thursday and freed a U.S. hostage from Muslim guerrillas who had threatened to behead him as a gruesome "birthday present" to the Philippine president. The hostage, 25-year-old Jeffrey Schilling of Oakland, Calif., was in good health Thursday after the raid. Brig. Gen. Diomedio Villanueva said that elite marines and police killed some Abu Sayyaf rebels and wounded others, and sporadic fighting continued for several hours after Schilling was evacuated to a military hospital in the island's capital, Jolo City.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo vowed to destroy the rebel group and sent another 1,800 troops to reinforce some 3,000 soldiers already scouring Jolo Island for them.

"They must surrender if they value their lives," she told DZMM radio in Manila. "This is a fight to the finish."

Schilling's relieved mother, Carol Schilling, said she was looking forward to her son returning home.

"I'm going to tell him I love him and I'm going to give him a great big hug and then I'm going to revoke his passport," she told The Associated Press from California.

Schilling, a Muslim convert, was taken by the rebels after he visited their camp in Jolo on Aug. 31. He was accompanied by his wife, Ivy Osani, the cousin of a rebel leader, Abu Sabaya. Osani was freed after the rebels seized Schilling.

The strange circumstances of his kidnapping led some local military officials to speculate that Schilling might have been cooperating with the rebels. The rebels accused him of being a CIA agent.

Last year, Sabaya promised "World War III" if the government launched a commando raid to rescue Schilling. The rebels had said that he was ill, coughing blood and being tortured.

When Abu Sayyaf commanders promised to send Schilling's severed head to Arroyo as a birthday present last week, she declared an "all-out war" on the guerrillas.

The army has since attacked strongholds of the rebels, who are thought to number about 1,200.

The U.S. Embassy welcomed the rescue in a statement and praised the Philippine military.

"The U.S government is thrilled with the news of Mr. Schilling's safe release and has expressed its deep appreciation to Arroyo and Gen. Villanueva for their valiant efforts over the past 7 1/2 months to free Mr. Schilling," an embassy statement said.

"The embassy has been informed that Mr. Schilling is in 'pretty good shape' and will be returning to his family in the U.S. shortly," it said.

Last week, Schilling's mother flew to the Philippines and went on local radio to plead for the rebels to call off the beheading. Sabaya relented but said Schilling could be killed at any time if the government didn't call off the military.

The army offensives continued Thursday on the jungle-covered island about 580 miles south of Manila.

Four rebels were killed in one clash earlier Thursday. The military says it has now killed seven Abu Sayyaf guerrillas since the offensives began 10 days ago.

The Abu Sayyaf, the smallest of the three major insurgency groups in the Philippines, shot to international notoriety last year after seizing dozens of hostages, many of them foreigners, in daring raids. It released all but two - Schilling and Roland Ulla, a Filipino worker at a scuba diving resort - for reported multimillion-dollar ransoms.

The Abu Sayyaf claims it is fighting for a separate Islamic state in the southern Philippines, but the government regards it as a bandit gang.

Arroyo said her government will not hold peace talks with the group as it plans to do separately with the Muslim secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the communist National Democratic Front.

AP-ES-04-12-01 1017EDT © Copyright 2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

-- Anonymous, April 12, 2001


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