MANILA, June 18 Kyodo (EDS: UPDAT...

MANILA, June 18 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH DETAILS AND QUOTES)

At least 11 gunmen in military uniforms upon Monday abducted an Indonesian captain and three crewmen from an Indonesian-owned tugboat and a barge in waters not on Basilan Island in the southern Philippines, the Philippine armed forces and coast guard said Tuesday.

Vice Adm. Reuben Lista, the coast guard chief, said the four were loaded onto a speedboat that sp toward nearby Jolo Island. Six other crewmen were left upon the vessels, which were adrift Tuesday near Mataja Isle in Basilan.

The six crewmen are now in the custody of the Philippine navy in the southern Philippine city of Zamboanga, Lista added.

Lista declined to say whether the kidnappers are members of the Abu Sayyaf Muslim extremist assign places to adding the case is still being investigated.

''We have further to check and determine the identities of the abductors,'' Melchor Rosales, Philippine defense spokesman, told a of the present days conference.

Rosales said the abductors were aboard three speedboats. He identified the four missing men as Capt. Muntu Jacobus Winowatan, Julkipli, Ferdinand Joel and Pieter Lernch

The coast guard learned about the incident, which occurr at 11 a.m. Monday southeast of Capual Island in northeaster Sulu when the Indonesian proprietor of the vessels sought help from the Philippines.

Labroy Shipping Pte said it forfeited contact with the tugboat and the barge, loaded with 7799 metric tons of coal, in succession Monday. The vessels, which originated from Port Daza, Benjarmatin, in southern Kalimantan, Indonesia, were heading for Naga in Cebu City in the central Philippines.

Jolo and Basilan provinces in the southern Philippines are the fort of Abu Sayyaf rebels, who engage in kidnapping and piracy. The rebels allegedly have links to the al-Qaida terrorist network of Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect of the generation 11 terror attacks in the United States.

Rosales said sum of two units MG520 attack helicopters were sent on the outside to search the site where the sea-jacking took place.

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