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ROME, April 2, 2009 (AFP) - Three Red Cross workers kidnapped in the Philippines by Islamic militants who have threatened to behead one of them are "alive," Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Thursday, the ANSA news
agency reported.
The hostages - an Italian, a Swiss and a Filipino abducted on January 15 - "are alive according to information in our possession," following "contacts with our compatriot," Frattini said.
The Abu Sayyaf guerrillas had said they would behead one of the trio unless Philippine troops effectively ceded control of the island of Jolo, where the army has been battling the militants, by March 31.
The Philippines military made a partial withdrawal from five towns but refused to go further.
The regional operations chief for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Alain Aeschlimann, earlier said he had no new word on the captives' fate.
Founded in the 1990s, allegedly with funds from Al-Qaeda, Abu Sayyaf has been blamed for bombings and kidnappings across the Philippines.
Pope Benedict XVI has issued a last-minute appeal for the lives of the hostages, as have the governments of Italy and Switzerland.
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