Indonesian hostage rescued while another drowns and Malaysian is shot after fleeing Muslim militants in Philippines

An Indonesian hostage held by Muslim militants in the southern Philippines swam his way to freedom but another drowned while a Malaysian was shot in the back while escaping, officials said on Saturday.

The two Indonesians and the Malaysian separately escaped while Philippine marines were trying to rescue them on Simusa island in southern Sulu province in the last two days, regional military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Gerry Besana said.

“The island had been blockaded for the past 41 days. They [kidnappers] probably thought they could slip past us by swimming,” he added.

The dramatic escapes leave at least three more hostages in the custody of the Abu Sayyaf, which is blacklisted by the United States and the Philippines as a terrorist organisation due to its brutal history of bombings, ransom kidnappings, extortion and beheadings. The remaining captives include a Dutch bird watcher, Elwold Horn, who was kidnapped by the militants in 2012, and two Filipinos.

One of the Indonesians, Heri Ardiansyah, was plucked from the waters by marines on board a gunboat while they recovered the body of his companion, Hariadin, who drowned. Like many Indonesians, Hariadin used just one name.

The Malaysian, who was identified by the military as Jari Bin Abudullah, was shot by the militants when he ran away on Thursday as marines tried to rescue him and engaged his captors in a gun battle.

Government forces surrounded Simusa island, where a small community thrives near mangroves, to hunt down the remaining Abu Sayyaf gunmen.

“The act of shooting the kidnap victim is indicative of the Abu Sayyaf’s hopelessness and desperateness as the militants are now surrounded by our pursuing troops,” said Sulu’s military commander, Brigadier General Divino Rey Pabayo Jnr.

The Malaysian was airlifted to Zamboanga city, where he was in critical condition in a hospital, military officials said.

The marines gunned down three of the at least seven Abu Sayyaf captors who were trying to chase the two Indonesians at sea, military officials said. They reportedly also seized four assault rifles, a grenade launcher and various ammunition.

The three hostages were kidnapped while fishing off Malaysia’s Sabah state on Borneo island in December last year and taken by speedboat to Sulu, the predominantly Muslim and poverty-wracked province where a few hundred Abu Sayyaf have survived in the jungles despite frequent military offensives.

The military got wind of the hostages’ location in late February and ordered the small civilian population on the island to leave, Besana said.

Army troops on Friday clashed with about 80 Abu Sayyaf gunmen in Sulu’s mountainous Patikul town in a fierce but brief gun battle that left three soldiers and four militants dead and several wounded on both sides, the military said.

The rebels belong to an Abu Sayyaf faction led by commander Hajan Sawadjaan and aligned with Islamic State. Sawadjaan is the main suspect in the bombing of a Roman Catholic cathedral during a mass that killed 23 mostly church-goers and two suspected suicide attackers on January 27 in Sulu’s capital town of Jolo.

Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse