Philippine kidnappers identified

Philippine police have identified at least three people who may have kidnapped three Red Cross workers last week then turned them over to al Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf gunmen on violent Jolo Island.

Jolo provincial police chief Julasirim Kasim said a policeman identified three of five kidnappers, led by a dismissed jail guard, who stopped a car at gunpoint near Jolo’s provincial capital on Thursday then abducted the International Committee of the Red Cross workers from Switzerland, Italy and the Philippines.

Officials say police were hunting the five kidnappers. At least 1,000 marines and police were involved in the search for 38-year-old Andreas Notter of Switzerland; 62-year-old Eugenio Vagni of Italy; and 37-year-old Mary Jean Lacaba of the Philippines in the worst hostage crisis to hit Jolo in years.