Lamitan - Abu Sayyaf Muslim rebels killed two of the 20 hostages they abducted from a tourist resort, police said yesterday as the guerrillas escaped a military cordon in the southern Philippines.
Both of the slain hostages were Filipinos and one of them was beheaded, said Mr Omar Ajit Dalawis, police chief of Lamitan town in Basilan island. The rebels escaped the cordon at Lamitan, where they had brought the 20 hostages, including three Americans, after abducting them from the western island of Palawan on May 27th.