Jordanian journalist, Baker Abdulla Atyani and his crew missing in the Southern Philippines
A seasoned Arab reporter and his two Manila-based crewmen have been reported missing while working on a story in the southern Philippines.
Al-Arabiya’s TV bureau chief for Southeast Asia, Baker Abdulla Atyani, who was one of the journalist who interviewed Osama bin Laden months before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, is believed to be in Jolo Island’s mountainous jungles to interview members of the Abu Sayyaf group and some of their foreign hostages as part of a TV documentary according to Associated Press anonymous sources.
Although its speculated that the trio was kidnapped, Senior Superintendent Antonio Freyra told the Inquirer that Atyani and the two Filipinos had simply failed to return to their hostel after going out on Tuesday.
“It’s premature to say they were abducted,” he said.
Jolo is a stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf, a small Islamic militant movement that has been blamed for most of the country’s worst terrorist attacks as well as kidnappings offoreigners.
This news comes just prior to the US State Department issuing an updated travel warning for US citizens traveling to the Philippines.
In the travel advisory, the State Department said:
U.S. citizens should defer non-essential travel to the Sulu Archipelago (where Jolo Island is located) , due to the high threat of kidnapping of international travelers and violence linked to insurgency and terrorism there.
Sulu Archipelago Photo credit: Kleomarlo via wikimedia commons
