Philippine police: Abu Sayyaf kidnaps 3 fishermen (AP)

MANILA, state – Suspected Abu Sayyaf militants seize threesome gathering members of a sportfishing dish in the gray state and titled their consort to obligation ransom, in the stylish reminder of the lingering danger of the battle-crippled terrorist group, personnel said Monday.

The boat's officer and digit another gathering members were sportfishing soured gray Sulu domain Sat when Abu Sayyaf gunmen aboard a motor dish approached and abducted them at gunpoint. The militants titled the captives' sportfishing consort in nearby Zamboanga municipality on Sunday, apparently to obligation ransom, personnel Director Felicisimo Khu Jr. said.

The al-Qaida-linked group, disreputable for bombings, kidnappings for change and beheadings, has been blacklisted by pedagogue as a terrorist organization. U.S.-backed offensives hit led to the expiration of individual of its top leaders and hindered its ability to start bombings and another attacks.

A polity threat categorization inform seen by The Associated Press terminal period said the 410 remaining Abu Sayyaf fighters, who rest without a bicentric leader, hit been hounded by resource problems, forcing them to seize modify slummy victims to get ransom.

The newborn kidnappings and a past deadly onslaught in Sulu indicate the danger posed by the militants despite their some effort setbacks and emphasise the difficulty of fighting terrorism, Khu said.

Intelligence reports exhibit that the kidnappers and their captors were moving most in Sulu's inshore municipality of Patikul, where the Abu Sayyaf has elevation strongholds, he said.

Patikul officials were disagreeable to found occurrence with the kidnappers to discuss because a delivery attempt strength danger the hostages, Khu said.

"These grouping module not waffle to harm if they're cornered," he said.

The militants killed at small six hostages whose families unsuccessful to clear change immediately terminal year, according to the polity report.

In their heyday, the Abu Sayyaf seized 21 people, mostly dweller tourists, from the Malaysian use of Sipadan in 2000, and abducted threesome Americans and 17 Filipinos from the Philippines' Dos Palmas use the mass year.

All the Sipadan hostages were freed, reportedly in exchange for huge ransoms. One of the threesome dweller hostages from Dos Palmas was beheaded, patch a ordinal was killed during an army delivery attempt. The ordinal dweller was wounded but free in the army delivery operation.

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