http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020821/ap_wo_en_ge/philippines_abu_sayyaf_10 Philippine Muslim rebels seize Avon salespeople in first hostage taking since U.S. military mission Wed Aug 21, 6:32 AM ET
By ZENY MASONG, Associated Press Writer
PATIKUL, Philippines - Suspected Abu Sayyaf guerrillas kidnapped at least six people selling Avon cosmetics door to door in a remote village in the southern Philippines, officials said Wednesday.
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The kidnappings were the first on the troubled island of Jolo since the United States began supporting a Philippines military campaign to wipe out the al-Qaida-linked Muslim militants seven months ago in the middle of a yearlong mass kidnapping that included three American captives.
Philippine troops responded by shelling Abu Sayyaf positions and searching for the gang.
Officials initially reported that eight people had been kidnapped, but two of them the only Muslims and local residents in the group showed up at their homes Wednesday, saying they spent the night with relatives and were surprised by the attention. Police were investigating.
Sulu provincial police chief Col. Ahiron Ajirim reported two men with pistols stopped a jeep carrying the sellers, five women and three men, and forced them out Tuesday afternoon. He said the driver was left behind in the rural area of Jolo island, about 900 kilometers (600 miles) south of Manila.
Ajirim said the driver later identified one kidnapper as Muin Maulod Sahiron, a nephew of local Abu Sayyaf leader Radullan Sahiron.
Ajirim said six of the victims were from Zamboanga, the biggest city in the region, but were staying at a local inn and selling Avon products on Jolo island. Two women in their 40s and a 21-year-old man registered at the inn with the same last name and are likely related, he said.
A police report said the six were all Jehovah's Witnesses, but said police found no evidence they were trying to promote their religion in the predominantly Muslim area.
He said police found boxes of Avon cosmetics in the jeep.
New York-based Avon Products Inc. is the world's largest direct seller of beauty products and has thousands of salespeople in the Philippines. Managers at its Manila office said they were not immediately aware of the abductions.
For six months from February, about 1,200 U.S. troops trained and provided logistical and intelligence support for the Philippine army's push to eradicate the Abu Sayyaf.
The U.S. program ended officially three weeks ago, although a few Americans remained on Basilan island, which neighbors Jolo, to finish infrastructure projects.
U.S. Navy ( news - web sites ) Adm. Thomas B. Fargo, chief of the U.S. Pacific Command, said in a speech at the closing ceremonies that the military campaign left the Abu Sayyaf "in disarray and on the run, unable to find the money or the time to eat, rest and resupply."
The rebels in Jolo, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) southwest of Basilan, are from a different Abu Sayyaf faction and suffered less from the intense offensives that the military says decimated the Abu Sayyaf on Basilan.
Patikul Vice Mayor Esmon Suhuri said the Philippine army shelled suspected Abu Sayyaf hide-outs around Patikul Tuesday night. Residents heard at least 10 ground-shaking artillery blasts. The fighting was the first in the war-stricken area in months.
Suhuri said the region's people were in the middle of a major harvest and renewed fighting could disrupt the relative prosperity the area has enjoyed this year.
The recent years of kidnapping have hit tourism and the economy nationwide.
On Wednesday, the 30-company Philippine Stock Exchange Index fell 2.1 percent on news of the kidnapping, which came amid fears of a widening national budget deficit.
The Abu Sayyaf has often kidnapped for ransom but more frequently has abducted poor Filipinos to serve for weeks or months as slave labor.
In the past the army has refrained from launching major attacks against Abu Sayyaf while they held hostages.
Most hostages have been released, but more than a dozen have been killed in the past year, some beheaded. The group also has kidnapped women to force them to marry guerrillas.
The last Abu Sayyaf kidnapping spree ended in June when U.S.-trained soldiers, helped by U.S. surveillance and communications, tracked down rebels holding the last of 102 captives: American missionaries Gracia and Martin Burnham and Filipino nurse Ediborah Yap.
On June 7, soldiers rescued Mrs. Burnham, but her husband and Yap were killed. The Abu Sayyaf leader who led those kidnappings was believed killed with two of his men in a clash at sea two weeks later.
A Filipino man, Roland Ullah, is still being held from another Abu Sayyaf mass kidnapping two years ago from a tourist resort in Malaysia.
The U.S. mission in the Philippines was the first expansion of the U.S. war on terrorism outside Afghanistan ( news - web sites). The operation, unprecedented in the Philippines, involved deployment of U.S. troops in a combat zone and lasted much longer than normal joint maneuvers, sparking protests in the former U.S. colony.