ZAMBOANGA CITY: Security forces captured two notorious bandits tagged as behind the series of kidnapping for ransom and murder of six people, an army spokesman said on Friday.

Capt. Alberto Caber of the First Infantry Division, said that soldiers and policemen raided a hideout of bandit leader Amie Andi at a village in Pagadian City in Zam-boanga del Sur province and captured Montasser Ratarta and Rachmodin Andi.

“Their leader was not in the hideout when security forces stormed the place, but the operation is continuing for the capture of Amie Andi,” he said.

Caber said that Andi’s group was behind the kidnappings of Filipino traders and foreigners in Zambo-anga peninsula and was implicated in the murder of six people, including three children, in the town of Lapuyan in February.

However, Caber did not say whether Andi was involved in the kidnapping of Irish missionary Michael Sinnott, seized on October 12, 2009 in Pagadian City.

Aside from Sinnott, kidnappers also seized Italian Catholic priest Giancarlo Bossi in Zamboanga del Sur’s Payao town on June 10, 2007.

And in 1998, gunmen kidnapped Italian missioners Luciano Bene-detti in Zamboanga del Norte province and in 1998 and Giuseppe Pierantoni in Dimataling town in Zamboanga del Sur.

Maj. Gen. Ricardo Rainier Cruz 3rd, regional army chief, said that he ordered soldiers to hunt down Andi who is believed to be hiding in Zamboanga del Sur.

“There shall be no let-up of pursuit operations against those responsible in the series of killings and kidnappings in Western Mindanao,” he told The Manila Times.

Cruz appealed to the public to help military and police authorities by providing information about Andi’s group. “The public must realize that their role in peace and security in the region is vital to the success of the security operations,” he said.

He said that the two bandits are currently being interrogated in Pagadian City.