Manila - Government troops clashed with Muslim militants holding captive an Italian Red Cross worker on a southern Philippine island, a military spokesman said Thursday. Brigadier General Gaudencio Rosales said the fighting erupted Wednesday when Muslim Abu Sayyaf rebels tried to break out of a cordon set up by government forces in Talipao town on Jolo island, 1,000 kilometres south of Manila.
The clash occurred as government troops launched operations to rescue Eugenio Vagni, an Italian employee of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), who has been held captive by the guerrillas for more than three months.
Governor Abdusakur Tan, head of the committee handling the hostage crisis, ordered the rescue operations Wednesday amid reports Vagni was suffering form a hernia injury and was in need of immediate medical attention.
Pangilinan said there was no sighting of Vagni during the firefight, but intelligence reports indicated the captive was with the group that clashed with the government troops.
"Based on intelligence reports the group that our troops encountered (on Wednesday) included Vagni, Abu Sayyaf commander Albader Parad and their leader Yasser Igasan," he said.
There were reported casualties in the clash, Pangilinan added.
Vagni was abducted along with fellow ICRC workers Swiss Andreas Notter and Filipino Mary Jean Lacaba on January 15 after they visited the Jolo provincial jail to oversee a water and sanitation project.
The rebels freed Lacaba on April 2 and Notter on April 17.
Notter has returned to his homeland on Tuesday, while Lacaba has been with her family in the southern city of Davao since her release.
The Abu Sayyaf rebels have been blamed for some of the worst terrorist attacks and high-profile kidnappings in the Philippines. They have beheaded hostages, including an American tourist abducted in 2001, when authorities failed to meet their demands.
