Philippine Forces Pound Muslim Rebels

Military planes and helicopter gunships pounded rebel camps in the southern Philippines today, in a surprise attack aimed at rescuing 19 foreign and Filipino hostages.

Thousands of troops and elite police arrived on ships to join the fight in the hills of Jolo island.

People stood in the streets of Jolo’s capital watching the distant attack, marked by bombing sorties by air force planes.

On Friday night, the military ordered all boats to leave the capital’s port to clear the way for the arrival of military ships.

In a nationally broadcast speech today, President Joseph Estrada said he ordered the attack, abandoning months of negotiations, after the Abu Sayyaf rebels continued to seize new hostages.

“Enough is enough,” he said. “We cannot allow the kidnappers to mock our laws and control our land.”

Estrada cut short a visit to the United States this week to deal with the worsening hostage crisis.

Among the hostages is American Muslim Jeffrey Schilling, who was abducted Aug. 28 when he visited one of the rebel camps. Rebels on Wednesday threatened to behead Schilling if they were attacked.

The status of the hostages was not immediately clear, and telephone links to the remote island were not working.

Support for an assault has grown since Sunday, when an Abu Sayyaf faction abducted three more people from a Malaysian diving resort despite an earlier pledge not to seize more hostages while negotiations are underway.

That kidnapping came just one day after the rebels released four Europeans--the last foreigners from a group of 21 people abducted April 23 from another Malaysian resort. The four gained their freedom as a result of Libyan mediation.

Chief government negotiator Robert Aventajado said he spoke late Friday with Estrada, who told him that “the die has been cast.”

“In my book, the kidnap of the three Malaysians is the needle that broke the camel’s back,” Aventajado said.

The attack is against various rebel factions holding three Malaysians, one Filipino captured in April, two French journalists, Schilling, and 12 Filipino Christian evangelists. The rebels claim that they are fighting for an independent Islamic state in the impoverished southern Philippines.

Visiting U.S. Defense Secretary William S. Cohen said Friday that the United States hoped the hostages could be released peacefully but that a decision on whether to use force was up to the Philippines.

Negotiations for the remaining hostages had been suspended because of fighting among Abu Sayyaf factions over the ransom. Negotiators say about $15 million in ransom has been paid so far, about $10 million of it by Libya.