ZAMBOANGA CITY, 25 November 2003 — Unidentified gunmen murdered 3 Muslim worshipers after abducting them inside a mosque in this southern Philippine port city, the military said yesterday.
Brothers Gazmin and Bong Aaron and a third man named Asdabin Galim were seized around 9 p.m. in the village of Tagasilay in the outskirts of Zamboanga City and had been found shot dead an hour later in the neighboring village of Muti, the military said.
No group has claimed responsibility for the killing and no witnesses have surfaced to help authorities shed light on the latest kidnapping. The military said the bodies of the victims were peppered with bullets.
The news of the killing coincided with the visit yesterday in Zamboanga City of former defense chief Angelo Reyes, now commander of the National Anti-Kidnapping Task Force (Naktaf).
Reyes arrived shortly before 9 a.m. and was briefed by the Southern Command on the progress of the rescue operations of five remaining Borneo hostages in Tawi-Tawi and three people kidnapped in Jolo Island.
