Word: gracia
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...terror. Bush wanted to reward Arroyo for pledging her support after Sept. 11, and Arroyo's military was plainly ill-equipped to track down Abu Sayyaf, which had snatched more than 100 hostages in recent years and still held three captive, including American missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham. Instead of giving U.S. troops carte blanche, Arroyo welcomed their offer of training and military aid. On June 7, a Philippine patrol found the hostages, but Martin Burnham was among those killed in the rescue attempt. Later that month, soldiers cornered gang leader Abu Sabaya, who was apparently shot while trying...
...must strongly disagree with TIME's characterization of the Philippine troops' assault on the Abu Sayyaf kidnapping gang as a "debacle" [WORLD, June 17]. While the deaths of two of the three hostages are tragic, one, American Gracia Burnham, was able to return home to her children. And that occurred thanks to decisive action by our Philippine allies. Had the Philippine government decided to take a more passive course, all three kidnap victims would ultimately have been killed when they no longer served Abu Sayyaf's political ends. Now the path is open to exterminate what is left of that...
...prey: Abu Sayyaf, the kidnapping gang that once formed part of Osama bin Laden's terrorism network. When the deluge began on Mindanao Island, the 30-odd bandits stopped to put up makeshift tarps for themselves and their three hostages--a Filipina nurse and an American couple, Martin and Gracia Burnham. The soldiers were already close by, having followed a trail of discarded coconut meat and jackfruits that, they say, the Burnhams themselves may have dropped to help the pursuit. "I would like to think they were dropping clues on the trail like Hansel and Gretel so the troops could...
...military. But when the fighting ended several hours later, things had gone badly wrong. Martin Burnham, 42, a Christian missionary from Kansas, lay dead in the jungle. The nurse, Ediborah Yap, 48, had been shot in the back and died moments later. A bullet passed through the leg of Gracia Burnham, 43, and she had to be airlifted to Manila for treatment. Four Abu Sayyaf gang members also died in the shoot-out, but about two dozen others, including the group's leader, Abu Sabaya, escaped back into the jungle that has so successfully shielded them for years...
...human shields," according to Teodosio, who debriefed the Scouts. The bandits returned the army's fire, but it isn't yet clear how the hostages were hit--whether they were caught in the cross fire or targeted by Abu Sayyaf for execution. The army is preparing an official report. Gracia Burnham reportedly characterized her husband's death as "God's liking...