Extremists behead two in Philippines
Muslim extremists beheaded at least two of six Jehovah’s Witnesses they kidnapped in the southern Philippines and dumped their heads in a public market, authorities said today.
Brigadier General Romeo Tolentino, commander of the army on the southern island of Jolo, said authorities found the heads of the two male hostages in an open air market in Jolo town along with notes calling for a holy war.
The two men were abducted on Tuesday with four women as the group sold Avon cosmetics and visited homes around the town of Patikul in the south of the predominantly Muslim island.
All the hostages were Filipinos, mostly poor people from the nearby city of Zamboanga, on the main Philippine southern island of Mindanao.
Officials identified the two dead men as 21-year-old Lemuel Bantolo and Leonel Mantic, of an unknown age, both from Zamboanga.
Mr Mantic’s 23-year-old wife, Emily, was still apparently captive along with Cleofe Bantolo, 46, Flora Bantolo, 40, and 41-year-old Nori Bendijo.
General Tolentino said one head was left in a cloth bag in a Jolo town market with an attached note referring to "infidels" and speaking of a holy war, or "jihad".
Another head was left in a plastic bag in the market with a similar note, he said.
Police and military officials say the kidnapping was carried out by Muin Maulod Sahiron, a nephew of Radullan Sahiron who heads the Muslim extremist Abu Sayyaf group in the area.
The kidnappings were the first on the troubled island of Jolo since the US began supporting a Philippines military campaign to wipe out the al Qaida-linked group seven months ago in the middle of a year-long mass kidnapping that included three American captives.
Sulu provincial police chief Colonel Ahiron Ajirim reported two men with pistols stopped a jeep carrying the Jehovah’s witnesses and forced them out on Tuesday afternoon.
He said the driver was left behind in the rural area of Jolo island, around 600 miles south of Manila.
Avon supplies were found abandoned in the jeep but officials said the victims may also have been trying to spread their religion.
The Abu Sayyaf has often kidnapped for ransom but more frequently has abducted poor Filipinos, mostly Christians, to serve for weeks or months as slave labour.
Most hostages have been released, but more than a dozen have been killed in the past year, many beheaded. The group has also kidnapped women to force them to marry guerrillas.
The last Abu Sayyaf kidnapping spree ended in June when US-trained soldiers, helped by US surveillance and communications, tracked down rebels holding the last of 102 captives: American missionaries Gracia and Martin Burnham and Filipino nurse Ediborah Yap.
On June 7, soldiers rescued Mrs Burnham, but her husband and Ms Yap were killed.
The Abu Sayyaf leader who led those kidnappings was believed killed with two of his men in a clash at sea two weeks later.
