ANALYSIS: Kidnappings underscore extremists’ desperation for funds
Jason Gutierrez, Agence France-Presse
February 3, 2012

MANILA, Philippines – With funding from the Middle East drying up and a decade of US-backed military pressure taking a toll, Islamic militants in the southern Philippines are relying on kidnapping for their survival, experts say.

The kidnapping-for-ransom stings offer the militants a vital source of income, with the best targets the brave or foolhardy foreigners who ignore travel warnings and drift into the most lawless parts of the south, they say.

The dangers were highlighted on Wednesday when two European men on a bird watching trip were kidnapped on remote islands where the Al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf and other militant groups are known to operate.

Their abductions bring to seven the number of foreigners believed to be being held by militants in the south, with one of them — an elderly Japanese man — not heard of since the middle of 2010.

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