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ZAMBOANGA, Philippines — A Muslim separatist group said Monday it was looking into an unconfirmed report that its rebels saw members of the extremist Abu Sayyaf moving hostages, including an American the abductors say they beheaded. 

Despite the Abu Sayyaf’s repeated claims to have killed Guillermo Sobero of Corona, Calif., three weeks ago, soldiers scouring Basilan island in the southern Philippines for kidnappers and captives have never found his body. 

Eid Kabalu, a spokesman for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, said Monday that its rebels reported seeing the Abu Sayyaf marching hostages through the jungle about 10 days ago, including all three Americans seized at a beach resort May 27. 

Kabalu stressed the information could not immediately be verified, and MILF leaders were seeking a better explanation from rebels in the field. 

“They said they saw the Americans and they were still alive and Sobero was still alive,” Kabalu told The Associated Press by telephone. “We are still trying to verify this.” 

That might take days, he said. 

Kabalu said the Americans were recognizable “by the color of their skin and the shape of their noses.” 

Military chief of staff Diomedio Villanueva said he did not know whether the report was credible. 

“I don’t have any confirmation from our ground troops,” Villanueva told Associated Press Television News. “It will be better if (the MILF) can help us in this matter by bringing out the body or the person of Mr. Sobero.” 

A spokesman for the military’s Southern Command said officials had not given up trying to find Sobero alive. 

“In the absence of concrete proof that he is dead, our position is that he is still alive, and that would add credence to the report of the MILF,” Lt. Col. Danilo Servando said. 

U.S. Embassy officials did not return phone calls. 

The Philippine Daily Inquirer on Monday quoted the MILF as saying Sobero might still be alive. 

The MILF has helped in the past with hostage releases and recently signed a cease-fire with the government. 

The two other American hostages are Martin and Gracia Burnham, a Christian missionary couple from Wichita, Kan., who have lived for years in this impoverished Southeast Asian island nation. 

The Abu Sayyaf says it is fighting for an independent Muslim state. The government calls the group a band of bandits specializing in kidnappings for ransom.