Lorenzo Vinciguerra
Photo: Reuters
[From article]
Lorenzo Vinciguerra, 49, made his daring escape while government forces were firing artillery rounds near the jungle forest where he was being held in mountainous Patikul town in Sulu province. He grabbed a long knife, hacked an Abu Sayyaf commander and then ran away, but was shot and wounded by another militant, security officials said.
Philippine army scout rangers later found him and escorted him to safety.
“He was wounded, but he’s well and recovering in a hospital,” regional military commander Lt. Gen. Rustico Guerrero said by phone.
In Bern, the Swiss government expressed relief that Vinciguerra had regained his freedom, but regretted that his Dutch companion remained in captivity.
[. . . ]
Vinciguerra was seized by the militants in nearby Tawi Tawi province in February 2012 while on a bird-watching trip with Horn and Ivan Sarenas, a Filipino birdwatcher who served as their guide.
[. . .]
The Abu Sayyaf was founded in the early 1990s on Basilan island, near Jolo. With an unwieldy collective of Islamic preachers and outlaws, it vowed to wage jihad, or holy war, in the predominantly Roman Catholic Philippines, but lost its key leaders early in combat, sending it on a violent path of extremism and criminality.
Washington has listed the Abu Sayyaf as a terrorist group and blames it for deadly attacks on American troops, foreign missionaries, and tourists and civilians in the south.
The al-Qaida-inspired group still has an estimated 400 fighters split into about six factions.
http://nypost.com/2014/12/06/swiss-hostage-makes-dramatic-escape-from-filipino-extremists/
Swiss hostage makes dramatic escape from Filipino extremists
By Associated Press
New York Post
December 6, 2014 | 12:12pm
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