Gunmen kidnap three

MANILA (AP):

MORE THAN a dozen armed men abducted a naturalised American, her teenage son and Filipino nephew before dawn yesterday from a southern Philippine island near a stronghold of al-Qaida-linked militants, officials said.

Suspicion fell on the notorious Abu Sayyaf, which has been blamed for ransom kidnappings, beheadings and bombings in the last two decades, or a Muslim rebel commander whose group has been linked to previous abductions.

The 400-plus Abu Sayyaf militants, who are fighting for an Islamist state in the predominantly Christian nation, are holding three other kidnap victims, including a child, as part of desperate efforts to raise funds, according to the Philippine army.

The assailants seized Gerfa Yeatts Lunsmann, her 14-year-old son and 19-year-old Filipino nephew from a house in Zamboanga city's Tictabon island village, then fled with their captives in two motorised boats, said police Senior Superintendent Edwin de Ocampo.

No contact or ransom demand has been made by the abductors, and their identities remain unconfirmed, de Ocampo said.