8 Filipinos Kidnapped by Rebels

PATIKUL, Philippines — Suspected Abu Sayyaf rebels kidnapped eight door-to-door Avon cosmetics salespeople, Philippine officials said today.

Esmon Suhuri, vice mayor of the town of Patikul on Jolo island, said the five women and three men, all Filipinos, were kidnapped Tuesday afternoon. He said the victims were both Christians and Muslims, and he blamed Abu Sayyaf. Jolo is known as an Abu Sayyaf stronghold.

The abductions are the first believed to be linked to Abu Sayyaf since about 1,000 U.S. troops began arriving in the southern Philippines in January to train the army to better combat the guerrilla group.

The exercise ended three weeks ago, although a few Americans are remaining to complete infrastructure projects on nearby Basilan island.

Suhuri said the army was shelling suspected Abu Sayyaf hide-outs around Patikul late Tuesday. The fighting was the first this year in the war-stricken area.

The rebels have often kidnapped for ransom but more frequently have abducted poor Filipinos to serve for weeks or months as slave labor. Many of the slaves have been released, but more than a dozen have been killed in the last year, some beheaded. The group has also kidnapped women to force them to marry guerrillas.

Jolo is about 50 miles southwest of Basilan, where U.S. Green Berets were training the Philippine Special Forces fighting Abu Sayyaf rebels there.

Abu Sayyaf seized 102 hostages, including three Americans, in a yearlong kidnapping rampage that ended in June when U.S.-trained soldiers, helped by American surveillance and communications, tracked down rebels holding the last of those captives: American missionaries Gracia and Martin Burnham and Philippine nurse Deborah Yap. Soldiers rescued Gracia Burnham, but her husband and Yap were killed.