ZAMBOANGA CITY: Security forces shot dead one of the captors of Italian missionary Fr. Giancarlo Bossi in a gunbattle early Wednesday in the southern port city of Zamboanga, officials said.

Army Lt. Gen. Corleto Vinluan, chief of the Western Mindanao Command, said Samad Awang, a subleader of a kidnapping group, was killed in the coastal village of Mampang where he was hiding.