MANILA, June 15 (Reuters) - Philippine soldiers may have located an area where they believe Muslim gunmen are holding an Italian Catholic priest kidnapped five days ago, a Marine commander said on Friday. Major-General Ben Dolorfino said Giancarlo Bossi was most probably being kept in a wooded area near the Mamagun mountains in the south of the country. Bossi was kidnapped from a coastal town about 40 km (25 miles) to the south of Mamagun on Sunday and taken away in a boat. "The priest is believed to be held by a 15-man group that was getting supplies, including food, from some residents near the mountain area," Dolorfino told reporters. He said an army unit had rounded up eight Muslim men in nearby Naga town, but freed them on Friday after they gave "vital information that could help us recover the Italian priest". The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a rebel group talking peace with the government, however, cautioned troops from making indiscriminate arrests because it could alienate the community and prevent them from cooperating. Mohaqher Iqbal, the rebels' chief peace negotiator, said a group of MILF sent to locate the priest had found the boat that was used in the June 10 kidnapping. "I was told the boat was destroyed to prevent the gunmen who took the priest from using it again," Iqbal said, adding the MILF was cooperating with the government to free the 57 year-old priest from Milan. Dolorfino said there had been no contact with the gunmen who kidnapped Bossi. They are believed to be renegade MILF members.
