Death Threat Against U.S. Couple

A Muslim extremist group threatened Wednesday to kill an American missionary couple, after the government refused to negotiate anything but the group's surrender.

The message from Abu Sabaya, a leader of the Abu Sayyaf group, came just days after he said the al Qaeda-linked rebels were open to "last deal" talks. The government responded by ruling out ransom and saying it only would negotiate the surrender of the Abu Sayyaf and the release of its hostages.

The Abu Sayyaf is holding Martin and Gracia Burnham of Wichita, Kansas, and Filipino nurse Ediborah Yap, the last hostages from a kidnapping spree that began last May 27, on jungle-covered Basilan island in the southern Philippines.

"We are accepting the challenge of the Philippine government," Sabaya told Radio Mindanao Network, apparently by satellite telephone. "Today, it's one year now; the door is closed for negotiations. It's up to them if they want to look for the dead bodies."

Asked if that meant the Burnhams will be killed, Sabaya said: "That depends. For example, if we see that the fight is getting one-sided, maybe we will just say goodbye to these two."

Sabaya made a similar statement shortly before he beheaded another American, Guillermo Sobero, last July in what he called a birthday present to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

He said, however, there were no immediate plans to kill the hostages.

"We prefer to prolong the hostage crisis and to give more embarrassment to what we call the superpower and the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines)," he said.

Some 6,000 Philippine troops have been searching for the Burnhams. U.S. troops, including special forces, are holding joint exercises with Philippine soldiers on the remote and mountainous island in efforts to eliminate the Abu Sayyaf.

The Philippine military said it was intensifying its efforts to finish the remnants of the Abu Sayyaf, which by government estimates is down to a few dozen fighters on Basilan, the guerrilla stronghold 560 miles south of Manila.

"We cannot operate in an environment where we are being threatened, so the military will not be cowed by this threat from Abu Sabaya, whether this threat is true or not," said Lt. Col. Danilo Servando, spokesman for the Southern Command.

Last week, Martin Burnham's father, Paul, said the Abu Sayyaf reneged on a March 13 agreement to release the three hostages by adding new, unspecified conditions. He later refused to comment on rumors that some ransom already had been paid.

"We are just hoping that something will work out so that they can get out as soon as possible," he said.

Sabaya earlier denied U.S. reports that his group has received $300,000 in exchange for the hostages.

He said Wednesday that the U.S. and Philippine governments have spent millions trying to end the hostages crisis, while the Abu Sayyaf's demands are probably "less than what a wing of a C-17 costs."

"They cannot do anything to us," Sabaya said. "Look what happened to al Qaeda," apparently referring to the group's continued survival despite the U.S. attacks in Afghanistan.

The United States has sent about 1,000 soldiers, including 160 from the Special Forces, for a six-month mission to train Filipino troops to better fight the Abu Sayyaf and undertake supporting civil projects.

Philippine officials claim the guerrillas have been using the hostages as human shields, complicating rescue efforts.