TALIPAO, Philippines (19 Sep 2000) -- According to Philippine military officials, government soldiers have sighted some of the hostages but no details were available. Several Abu Sayyaf factions are holding one Sipadan dive instructor kidnapped five months ago, two French television crew, three Malaysian dive resort staff, an American and 12 Filipino evangelists. The rebels have fled into the dense jungle interior of Jolo island where they are believed to be hiding with the hostages in a network of underground tunnels built by the Japanese during WWII. "The longer the operation continues, the greater is the danger to the hostages," said a military official. "In any situation like this, you would assume you would lose 50% of the hostages. As the operation continues, the likelihood of rescuing at least half of them goes down." © CDNN - CYBER DIVER NEWS NETWORK | 
