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New York TimesMANILA -- Three workers from the International Committee of the Red Cross were abducted Thursday by men believed to be members of the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group in the southern Philippines, officials said.
The abductions, the latest in a string of recent kidnappings in the south, took place in the town of Patikul, on Sulu, an island province where Abu Sayyaf and other rebel groups have been active.
Military officials identified the victims as Andreas Notter of Switzerland, Eugenio Vagni of Italy and a Filipino, Jean Lacaba. The Philippine military said it had conducted a “hot pursuit” operation Thursday morning and recovered the victims’ vehicle, which is owned by the Philippine Red Cross.
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The Red Cross in Manila said in a statement that its three workers were in Sulu to inspect a jail there as part of the group’s efforts to improve prison facilities in the Philippines. The abductions took place a few hundred meters from the Sulu provincial jail, where the workers also had carried out water and sanitation projects, said Roland Bigler, a Red Cross spokesman in Manila.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/16/world/asia/16manila.html?ref=world