Hope For Philippines Hostages

Philippines President Joseph Estrada said Wednesday (Tuesday ET) that two French journalists held hostage by the Abu Sayyaf rebels were free and an American hostage may be released soon.

It was not clear if the Frenchmen were freed by the rebels or rescued by the military.

Estrada earlier said he would only halt the military's four-day assault on the rebel compound if the Abu Sayyaf rebels freed all their captives, including six foreigners.

"Let them release the hostages and that's the time we can talk," he said.

Thousands of civilians fled from the sporadic clashes on remote Jolo island, and thousands of others were trapped inside a tight military blockade of rebel areas, refugees said.

The three separate Abu Sayyaf factions that held a total of 19 hostages merged into two as they fled the assault, presidential Press Secretary Ricardo Puno said.

One group is holding American Jeffrey Schilling and Filipino Roland Ulla, who was kidnapped from a Malaysian diving resort in April. The other is holding the two French journalists, three Malaysians and 12 Filipino Christian evangelists, he said.

The rebels are believed to be planning to use the hostages as human shields and bargaining chips, Puno said.

Since the assault began Saturday, the military has overrun three major Abu Sayyaf camps and smaller hide-outs, but found no sign of the hostages there.

The rebels had threatened to attack southern cities and behead Schilling, of Oakland, Calif., if they were attacked by the military.

Officials said some of the fleeing rebels were attempting to escape to nearby islands, but Estrada said there was no information any had been able to break through naval ship patrols.

The rebels are believed to have speedboats bought with some of the more than $15 million ransom they reportedly received from Libya and Malaysia for freeing other hostages.

The spokesman, Gen. Generoso Senga, also indicating the military still had no clear idea of where the rebels were, suggesting the assault could take longer than the one week the military has estimated.

Officials continued a news blackout on most details of the assault.

Police arrested two suspected Abu Sayyaf members Tuesday in Zamboanga city, about 85 miles from Jolo, they believe are members of an explosives team.

One, Fauzi Dansalan, said he was arrested in Manila in connection with a bombing several months ago at a shopping mall but was cleared and released. The other, Ahmad Hanapi, is a servant for the mother of Schilling's wife, Ivi Osani, police said.

Osani is the second cousin of rebel spokesman Abu Sabaya and the widow of a rebel killed by government troops several years ago.

Schilling, who converted to Islam in 1994, visited an Abu Sayyaf camp with Osani on Aug. 28 and reportedly was abducted because of an argument over religion with the rebels. Osani was not seized.

Seven rebels have been killed and 20 captured in the four days of fighting, while six govrnment troops were wounded, military officials said.