Regional intelligence sources said the gunmen and the hostages were currently on the run from the pursuing military forces.
During the incident on Thursday, six gunmen kidnapped the hostages and fled on foot when they landed on Solre Island in Parang, within the militants’ stronghold in the southern Philippine island of Jolo.
According to regional intelligence sources, the Filipino military set up a cordon around Jolo following reports of the kidnapping of five Sabah-based Indonesian fishermen and a shootout occurred late Saturday.
“They conducted air strike operations using MG helicopters on a suspected Abu Sayyaf group in Solre Island that resulted in the death of one of the militants, ” the source said.
The source said a grey-blue coloured speedboat and a mobile phone were also seized.
On Thursday night, six militants from a kidnap-for-ransom group linked to suspected Abu Sayyaf militants abducted five Indonesian fishermen from their trawler in Sabah’s easternmost waters off Lahad Datu, about 10 minutes from the Tawi-Tawi chain of islands in southern Philippines.
The hostages were taken from an eight-man Indonesian crew on board the Sabah-registered fishing trawler before heading towards the southern Philippines waters.
Security forces under the Eastern Sabah Security Command were alerted to the incident by other fishermen at 1pm on Friday.
They then immediately carried out an operation and alerted their Filipino counterparts.
Those kidnapped were the trawler’s skipper Arsyad Dahlan, 41; La Baa, 32; Riswanto Hayano, 27; Edi Lawalopo, 53; and Syarizal Kastamiran, 29.
All the Indonesians were working for a Sandakan-based fishing company.
Regional intelligence sources said that the Philippine military was closing in on the gunmen and the hostages.
Pinoy army launches SAR operations for 5 Abu Sayyaf hostages
MANILA - The Philippine military on Sunday said it has launched search-and-rescue operations for five Indonesian fishermen kidnapped by militants belonging to the Islamic State-linked Abu Sayyaf group in Malaysian waters last week.
Eight Indonesians were abducted in Sabah on Thursday.
Three were released, while the remaining five were probably brought by their captors to the southern Philippine province of Sulu, said Lieutenant General Cirilito Sobejana, chief of the military’s Western Mindanao Command.
Sulu is Abu Sayyaf’s stronghold.
Sobejana disclosed the abduction a day after soldiers clashed with Abu Sayyaf members in Sulare island in Parang town, in Sulu, killing one militant and destroying a speed boat believed to have been used in the kidnapping.
Sobejana said Malaysian authorities had immediately coordinated with the Philippine military after the abduction.
Indonesia’s foreign ministry said it also has coordinated with the Philippine government and was still waiting for official information about the incident.
The speed boat was positively identified by the three Indonesian fishermen who have been freed as the one used in the abduction staged by six militants, Sobejana said.
“The likelihood they are in Sulare island or Parang, Sulu is very high,” he said.
Abu Sayyaf, which has its roots in separatism, is notorious for banditry and piracy, including beheading some captives if no ransom is paid.
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