Philippine Troops Free U.S. Hostage in Raid Against Muslim Guerrillas

Philippine soldiers raided a Muslim rebel camp Thursday and rescued American hostage Jeffrey Schilling seven months after he was kidnapped.

The Abu Sayyaf rebels had threatened to behead Schilling last week as a “birthday present” to Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. She responded by declaring “all-out war” on them.

Brig. Gen. Diomedio Villanueva, who led the assault on the rebels on Jolo island, 600 miles south of Manila, said Schilling was in good condition. The Oakland native was taken to a hospital for a checkup and will return to California in the next few days, officials said.

The United States praised the Philippine government for freeing Schilling, 25, a convert to Islam who was captured in August after he visited the rebels with his new wife, a cousin of one of the rebel leaders.

“The U.S. government is thrilled with the news of Mr. Schilling’s safe release,” the American Embassy in Manila said in a statement. “The embassy has been informed that Mr. Schilling is in ‘pretty good shape’ and will be returning to his family in the U.S. shortly.”

Schilling’s mother, Carol, said from Oakland that she was thrilled that he would be coming home soon. “I’m going to tell him I love him, and I’m going to give him a great big hug, and then I’m going to revoke his passport,” she said.

Schilling was among scores of hostages taken by the Abu Sayyaf group last year, including 21 tourists and workers seized in a raid on a diving resort in neighboring Malaysia. Many of the hostages were released after Libya paid millions of dollars to the rebels.

Abu Sayyaf advocates a separate Islamic state in the southern Philippines, but the government dismisses the group as a gang of criminals with no serious political agenda.

Schilling’s case was an oddity because he was captured after he walked into the camp on his own.

Some speculated that he had some connection to the rebels but was captured after they had a disagreement.

A Libyan official said last fall that Schilling had visited the camp often before his capture. Philippine intelligence sources contended that Schilling was interested in selling the rebels military equipment.

“I can tell you he was not a regular tourist in Jolo,” then-Philippine Defense Minister Orlando Mercado said last year. “His connections with Abu Sayyaf are murky.”

More recently, however, the rebels accused Schilling of being a CIA agent.

His mother rejected the idea that he had somehow cooperated with his kidnappers. “I know my son was being held against his wishes,” she said.

Abu Sayyaf had threatened several times to kill Schilling. At one point, he reportedly went on a hunger strike to win his freedom.

The government launched an offensive against the Abu Sayyaf group last fall, which put the rebels on the run and resulted in the release of most of the hostages who had not already been ransomed.

After the rebels threatened to behead Schilling on Arroyo’s birthday April 5, she vowed to destroy the group. “They must surrender if they value their lives,” the president told DZMM radio in Manila. “This is a fight to the finish.”

The rebels withdrew their threat after Carol Schilling flew to the Philippines and made an appeal on local radio for mercy.

By then it was too late to stop the offensive by the 3,000 soldiers who were sent into the jungle last week to hunt down the rebels.

Authorities said some of the kidnappers were killed in the raid on the camp where Schilling was held, but they did not say how many.

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Associated Press contributed to this report.