Philippine security forces rescued Monday night a Chinese trader abducted by suspected Muslim militants in the southern Philippines, local officials said Tuesday.

The victim, Xili Wu alias Peter Go, was recovered by police and military following a 10-minute gun fight with his captors in the village of Lambago, Luuk town in the province of Sulu, according to provincial police commander Senior Superintendent Elmer Escosia.

Gunmen, believed to be members of the militant Abu Sayyaf group, seized Wu from his store in downtown Jolo on Dec. 14, 2008. Escosia said Wu, who is native of Fujian, China, is now undergoing tactical debriefing.

The 380-strong Abu Sayyaf group, founded in the early 1990s by Islamic extremists, is notorious for kidnappings, bombings and even beheadings in the South over the past decade. The US government blacklisted the group as a foreign terrorist organization.