US monitors rescue operations for kidnapped citizens in Philippines

Jul 13, 2011, 10:09 GMT

Zamboanga City, Philippines - The US embassy in Manila on Wednesday dispatched representatives to a southern city where two of its citizens were seized by Islamist militants, a local official said.

Zamboanga City Mayor Celso Lobregat said Washington expressed concern over Tuesday's kidnapping of Gerfa Yeatts Lunsmann, 50; her 14-year-old son, Kevin; and their Filipino relative at a beach resort near Zamboanga City, 875 kilometres south of Manila.

'They [the US representatives] were here to get as much information as possible about the incident,' Lobregat said.

A military report said the three victims were sighted late Tuesday in Payao town in nearby Zamboanga Sibugay province with Abu Sayyaf rebels under commander Ustadz Rakib and rogue Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) commander Waning Abdusalam.

Lunsmann is a native of Tictabon village on Sacol Island off Zamboanga City who was adopted by a US couple when she was 9. She is married to German citizen. She and her son arrived in the village about two weeks ago on vacation.

The al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf has been blamed for high-profile kidnapping-for-ransom cases and deadly terrorist attacks in the country while the MILF is the largest Muslim separatist rebel group in the Philippines.

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