In the News this morning from the news agency Reuters .
The first new pictures in several months of an American missionary couple held hostage in the Philippines have been released showing them apparently healthy and reading a statement from their captors.
A video obtained by Reuters News Agency shows Martin and Gracia Burnham in the forefront of the screen flanked by hooded heavily armed guards.
The statement, read by Martin Burnham , said their Abu Sayyaf captors were targeting Americans, Europeans and other Westerners because of U.S. policies in the Middle East.
The statement also indicated that the Abu Sayyaf regards itself as part of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, something U.S. and Philippine officials have long said they suspect.
The statement began "I, Martin Burnham and my wife Gracia , both U.S. citizens, were taken captive on May 27, 2001 at the Dos Palmas resort in Palawan by the Al Qaeda's 'Al Harakatul Islamiah,' or known as the Abu Sayyaf group."
He then went on to detail five specific areas of grievance, including U.S. support for Israel, sanctions against Iraq and Libya, and support for the "Philippine government's illegal and immoral annexation and occupation of Muslim lands."
According to Reuters the cameraman, who identified himself as a former Muslim rebel, would not say exactly where he shot the video.
He told the news agency he made the tape in mid-January after being granted access to Abu Sayyaf's hideouts in Jolo and Basilan.
His statement could not be independently verified, Reuters said.
Since January U.S. special forces have joined Filipino troops in the jungles of Basilan island in a bid to flush out the bandits and secure the release of the Burnhams and another hostage, Filipina nurse Deborah Yap. (More on U.S. deployments in the war on terror)
The Burnhams , from Wichita Kansas, were seized in May 2001along with American Guillermo Sobero and 17 Filipinos .
Sobero, a Californian native, was later found to have been beheaded after his remains were uncovered by Filipino troops near the Abu Sayyaf's jungle hideout in Basilan province.
The other 16 Filipinos, apart from Yap, were later released after some of their families reportedly paid huge amounts of ransom.
The U.S. has put Abu Sayyaf on a global list of terrorist groups with suspected links to the al Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden.
