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    Thumbs up Canadian Hostage Beheaded by Islamic Militants in Philippines

    "I've been involved behind the scenes for the last six months trying to find a solution and it's been very painful."

    4.26.2016 Mark Tapson

    Canadian man kidnapped last September by Islamic militants and held captive for months in the Philippines has been beheaded.

    The BBC reports that former mining executive John Ridsdel, 68, was taken from a tourist resort along with three others by the radical Abu Sayyaf group.

    Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau denounced the savagery as "an act of cold-blooded murder." This is the same Kumbiyah-preaching Prime Minister who believes that "if you kill your enemies, they win"; so by his reasoning, Ridsdel and Canada have beaten Abu Sayyef.

    Ridsdel was kidnapped along with Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad and another Canadian, Robert Hall, as well as Hall's Philippine girlfriend Marites Flor. Abu Sayyaf released a video of the captives in November, demanding $80 million for their release. Ridsdel, the middle male captive in the photo above, later warned that he was due to be killed on April 25 if no ransom was paid.

    Mere hours after the deadline, Ridsdel's severed head was found on the street.

    "It's hard," a friend of Mr Ridsdel, Bob Rae, told CBC News. "It's just very hard. I've been involved behind the scenes for the last six months trying to find a solution and it's been very painful."

    Abu Sayyaf was set up in the 1990s and received funding from al-Qaeda, the BBC noted. It is fighting for an independent Islamic province in the Philippines, and several of its factions have declared their allegiance to the Islamic State.

    Trudeau did not offer many details, saying he did not want to compromise the safety of the other captives.

    Canadian Hostage Beheaded by Islamic Militants in Philippines


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    Philippines' Aquino vows to 'neutralise' Abu Sayyaf kidnappers

    Philippine President Benigno Aquino vowed to launch a military assault aimed at "neutralising" Abu Sayyaf militants who beheaded a Canadian hostage and are holding more than 20 other foreigners.

    Posted 27 Apr 2016 16:19 Updated 27 Apr 2016 16:50

    MANILA: Philippine President Benigno Aquino vowed on Wednesday (Apr 27) to launch a military assault aimed at "neutralising" Abu Sayyaf Islamic militants who beheaded a Canadian hostage and are holding more than 20 other foreigners.

    "Casualties are to be expected. But what has to be of utmost importance is neutralising the criminal activities of the ASG," Aquino said in a statement, referring to the Abu Sayyaf by a commonly used acronym.

    Aquino released the statement after the severed head of Canadian John Ridsdel, kidnapped seven months ago from aboard a yacht, was dumped Monday on a street on Jolo, a remote southern island that is one of the Abu Sayyaf's main strongholds.

    "This murder was meant to terrorise our whole population. The Abu Sayyaf thought they could instil fear in us. Instead, they have galvanised us even further to ensure justice is meted out," Aquino said.

    "We have always been open to talks with those who desire peace, but those who commit atrocities can expect the full might of the state."

    The Abu Sayyaf militants, whose leaders have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, are holding more than 20 other foreigners captive.

    These include another Canadian, a Norwegian man and a Filipina who were abducted at the same time as Ridsdel at a marina near Davao, the biggest city in the southern Philippines and about 600 kilometres (370 miles) from Jolo.

    The Abu Sayyaf is also believed to be holding a Dutch bird watcher kidnapped from a southern Philippine island in 2012, as well as 18 Indonesian and Malaysian sailors abducted over the past month.

    Aquino said the captives were under the control of Radullan Sahiron, one of the Abu Sayyaf's founders famous for losing one arm in battle against the military.

    He said Sahiron had consolidated his forces around himself and the captives in Sulu, a small Muslim-populated archipelago about 1,000 kilometres from Manila. Jolo is the biggest island in Sulu.

    "This presents both a problem and an opportunity. It is a problem because of the sizeable force surrounding Sahiron and the captives, but it is also an opportunity because smashing these forces is within our grasp," Aquino said.

    The Abu Sayyaf is a radical offshoot of a Muslim separatist insurgency in the south of the mainly Catholic Philippines that has claimed more than 100,000 lives since the 1970s.

    It is believed to have just a few hundred militants but has withstood repeated US-backed military offensives against it, surviving by using the mountainous jungle terrain of the southern islands to its advantage.

    Although the Abu Sayyaf's leaders have pledged allegiance to Islamic State, analysts say it is mainly focused on kidnappings for ransom. Abu Sayyaf gangs have earned many millions of dollars from kidnapping foreigners and locals since the early 1990s.


    Philippines' Aquino vows to 'neutralise' Abu Sayyaf kidnappers - Channel NewsAsia


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