Islamist militants have beheaded two Vietnamese sailors held hostage for eight months in the southern Philippines, the military said on Wednesday.
Philippine troops found the remains of the two hostages early Wednesday morning on the island of Basilan, a stronghold of the notorious Abu Sayyaf kidnap-for-ransom group, military spokeswoman Captain Jo-Ann Petinglay said.
“This is a desperate measure of the Abu Sayyaf Group because they see they have no gains from their kidnap-for-ransom activity,” Petinglay told AFP.
Vietnam’s foreign ministry said it was seeking confirmation from Philippine authorities, and called for heavy punishment for the killers.
“Vietnam strongly condemns all acts of kidnapping and barbarous and inhumane murder, and we are of the opinion that these acts must be heavily punished,” spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang told AFP.
Abu Sayyaf, originally a loose network of militants formed in the 1990s with seed money from Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network, has splintered into factions, with some continuing to engage in banditry and kidnappings.