Kevin Lunsmann was last of three family members held hostage after mother was freed and cousin escaped
A 14-year-old American boy has been released after five months held captive by suspected Muslim militants in the southern Philippines, the country's military has said.
Kevin Lunsmann was recovered late on Saturday by a village official in Lamitan town on southern Basilan Island, a stronghold of Abu Sayyaf rebels, said military spokesman Lt Col Randolph Cabangbang.
Kevin was taken on 12 July with his Filipino-American mother, Gerfa Yeatts Lunsmann, and a Filipino cousin, Romnick Jakaria. The mother was dropped off two months ago by boat on Basilan, while the cousin escaped to freedom in November when Philippine special forces managed to get near an Abu Sayyaf camp in the island's mountains.
The three had been on holiday with relatives on an island near Zamboanga City when they were abducted and taken by boat to nearby Basilan. The captors then called the family in Campbell County, Virginia, to demand a ransom.
It is unclear whether a ransom was paid for any or all of the three.
On Monday suspected militants abducted Australian Warren Richard Rodwell, 53, from his seaside house in Zamboanga Sibugay province, near Basilan, but it was not immediately confirmed if they also belonged to the Abu Sayyaf. Kidnappers are also holding an Indian, a Malaysian and a Japanese.
The US ambassador to the Philippines, Harry Thomas, said Kevin Lunsmann would be reunited with his family soon. "I also want to acknowledge the courage of Kevin himself, and his family, throughout this long ordeal," he said.
Ransom kidnappings have long been a problem in the impoverished region and are blamed mostly on the Abu Sayyaf, listed by the US as a terrorist organisation and notorious for beheadings and bombings.
Its stated goal has been the establishment of an Islamic state in the southern Philippines, home to minority Muslims in the predominantly Christian nation.