Military cuts food and water to kidnappers

Manila: The military has decided to lessen the food and water supply of the kidnappers of three Red Cross aid workers, to pressure them to release their victims in the southern Philippines, a spokesman said.

Government troops are now trying to limit the logistics and supply of the Al Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) that is holding Filipino Mary Jean Lacaba, Italian Eugenio Vagni and Swiss Andreas Notter in an identified lair in Indanan, Sulu, Philippine Navy spokesman Lt Col Edgar Arevalo.

"Government security forces are now on negation patrols," said Arevalo, adding the move will force the kidnappers to release their captives.

Efforts to confine the whereabouts of the ASG and their victims who work for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) are bearing fruit, said Arevalo.

"[As a result], they [ASG kidnappers] are now protesting and demanding for a military pull-out," said Arevalo, adding the kidnappers are "feeling the pressure and the heat [of military presence near their lair]."

"We will confine them in one location," said Arevalo, adding the military also assured the families of other kidnap victims in Basilan and Jolo, that their relatives are alive.

The kidnappers are in a relatively small zone that is under military supervision around the clock, said Commodore Alex Pama, concurrent chief of the Naval Forces Western Mindanao.

The ASG has also kidnapped three teachers, a nine-year-old child, and a Sri Lankan peace worker in the south.