Do Trung Hieu, a Vietnamese sailor captured in a high-profile Abu Sayyaf kidnapping last year, was rescued by Filipino troops recently.
According to an announcement by Vietnam's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday, reports Tuoi Tre, Hieu was one of six sailors on the MV Royal, a Vietnamese commercial vessel, which was ambushed at sea last year by the Filipino militant group Abu Sayyaf.
“We have ordered the Embassy of Vietnam in Manila to carry out the necessary procedures for the repatriation of Hieu,” the announcement says.
Hieu and five other hostages, including the ship’s captain, were held captive on Basilan Island in southern Mindanao in the Philippines – the “capital” of Abu Sayyaf’s operations in the country – after their boat was hijacked. Local troops claimed that after intensified efforts against the militants, they were able to free Hieu.
"The hostage was able to run from the militants in the course of military operations and our troops rescued him with the help of local connections," Captain Jo-Ann Petinglay, the Philippines’ military spokeswoman, told AFP, reports VnExpress.
Last November, the Vietnamese cargo ship was sailing near Sibago Island in Mohammad Ajul, a Basilan-based town, when militants stormed the vessel from a speedboat and kidnapped six Vietnamese nationals.
Abu Sayyaf asked for 100 million pesos (US$1.97 million) in ransom, according to Radio Free Asia. After months of not having their demand met, they beheaded two of the kidnapped crew members, allegedly on July 5 this year.
Abu Sayyaf started in the 1990s as a ragtag band of militants with seed money from Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network. The group has grown stronger and more aggressive recently under the global influence of ISIS' self-proclaimed caliphate in the Middle East. They’re known to behead hostages if refused ransom payments.
[Photo via Wikiwand]
