U.S. Hostage Dies in Philippine Rescue Attempt

June 07, 2002

ZAMBOANGA, Philippines  — American missionary Martin Burnham was killed, and his wife Gracia wounded but freed, as U.S.-trained Philippine soldiers raided a jungle hideout in a bid to rescue hostages held by the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas. (see Rebel Groups in the Philippines)

A third hostage, Filipina nurse Ediborah Yap, was reported dead of wounds sustained in the gunfight, but soldiers on the scene said they had not found her body.

Gracia Burnham was being operated on in a military hospital in the southern city of Zamboanga, Maj. Gen. Ernesto Carolina, commander of Philippine forces in the south, told reporters

"She's here already," Carolina said. "She is being operated on. It's a gunshot wound. She's talking. She's out of danger."

Martin Burnham, of Wichita, Kan., was killed by a gunshot during the raid near the town of Siraway, said Gen. Narciso Abaya, the Philippine deputy military chief of staff.

Four of the kidnappers were killed and several soldiers wounded, Abaya said.

Philippine officers said U.S. helicopters, part of a 1,000-strong contingent of U.S. troops advising Filipinos fighting the Abu Sayyaf, were retrieving more wounded from the clash scene.

Martin Burnham's parents, Paul and Oreta Burnham, received the news of his death at their home in Rosehill, Kan.

Paul Burnham told reporters that the family had no idea the rescue effort was going to happen and said the news was "very hard to take."

The family said they were very appreciative of the military effort and supported the Philippine government's effort to eradicate the Abu Sayyaf.

Martin and Gracia Burnham's three children were with their other grandparents, Norvin and Betty Jo Jones of Cherokee Village, Ark.

Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said no U.S. troops were directly involved in the raid and that the American counterterrorism training program in the Philippines would continue.

Speaking in Brussels, Belgium, where he was attending NATO meetings, Myers said the U.S. Special Forces troops who have been training Philippine troops had not been helping them plan a mission to rescue the Burnhams.

"The training was more general. It was not pointed to hostage rescue," Myers said.

In Zamboanga, Gracia Burnham was conscious and talking to U.S. military doctors at the Philippine Southern Command Hospital with an intravenous drip attached to her arm.

Seven wounded Filipino soldiers lay near Burnham, who looked flushed and weak. Doctors said a bullet passed cleanly through her right thigh.

"The terrorists will not be allowed to get away with this," said Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. "I commiserate with the Burnham and Yap families. This has been a long and painful trial for them, for our government, for our country.

"Our soldiers tried their best to hold their fire for safety," Arroyo said. "We shall not stop until the Abu Sayyaf is finished."

Philippine officers said hundreds of elite troops equipped with night vision goggles and backed by U.S. surveillance technology launched the attack to free the missionaries Friday as part of an extended rescue operation that has been going on for almost two weeks.

The Philippine military said intelligence showed that members of the Abu Sayyaf, a Muslim rebel group infamous for beheading hostages, were holed up with at least one of the Burnhams near the village in the southern province of Zamboanga del Norte.

The Light Reaction Company, a stealthy U.S.-trained unit equipped with silencers, night vision equipment and high-tech headsets, fanned out secretly throughout the area of coconut groves and farms in recent days after solid indications that at least one of the Burnhams was held near there.

Philippine officers said the guerrillas evaded the troops for days but were slowed down by heavy rains Friday, allowing the soldiers to catch them.

The Burnhams were kidnapped May 27, 2001 by members of the Abu Sayyaf. Yap was kidnapped days later when the Abu Sayyaf, with the Burnhams in tow, raided a hospital in the southern town of Lamitan to seize hospital staff and medicine to treat their wounded.

The guerrillas kidnapped 18 other people along with the Burnhams, including 17 Filipinos and Corona, Calif., resident Guillermo Sobero.

Sobero was beheaded by the guerrillas in June 2001, according to U.S. and Filipino officials.

The Abu Sayyaf fighters are thought to number only 60 or so from an original force of 1,000 after a year of army offensives. The group says it is fighting to carve a Muslim state out of the southern Philippines, and it is believed to have links to Usama bin Laden's Al Qaeda terrorism network.

U.S. Green Berets, pilots, military engineers and support staff are in the southern Philippines, training local forces to better fight the Abu Sayyaf.
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