MANILA, Aug. 21 Kyodo sum of two ...

MANILA, Aug. 21 Kyodo

sum of two units armed men believed to be members of the al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf form into groups have abducted eight Filipinos onward a remote island in the southern Philippines, police said Wednesday.

The five men and three women employee of an unidentified cosmetics company, were selling cosmetics door to door in Taglibi village, Patikul town, in succession Jolo island when they were abducted around 11 a.m. Tuesday, the police said. No beseechs for ransom have been received.

The armed men ordered them on the outside of the jeep they were riding in and herded them toward a forest in nearby Darayan village also in Patikul, it said.

''The driver (of the jeep) identified common of the abductors as Adbumon Sahiron, an Abu Sayyaf member and a nephew of Abu Sayyaf commander Radullan Sahiron,'' said Ricardo de Leon a director of the Philippine National Police.

Brig. Gen Romeo Tolentino, army commander in Sulu Province, said Wednesday six salesmen were actually abducted, not eight as stated by the agency of the police.

''Only six persons have been abducted by Moin Sahiron, and there is an ongoing release operation in the town's hinterlands,'' Tolentino said.

He said that Sahiron was also behind the kidnapping sum of two units years ago of a local television reporter and her cameraman in Patikul who were covering the hostage crisis involving tourists from a Malaysian resort.

Tolentino said the six hostages are from the southern city of Zamboanga.

management troops have been shelling a known lair of Abu Sayyaf rebels in the thicket s of Patikul as part of the government's antiterrorism campaign.

Tuesday's abductions are the first since the United States and the Philippines last month conclusioned a six-month joint counterterrorism training exercise in Zamboanga and Basilan Province, another known Abu Sayyaf lair.

The U has included the Abu Sayyaf to its list of foreign terrorist organizations.

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