President of Philippines vows to destroy terrorist group Abu Sayyaf after beheading

Twelve soldiers, including a young lieutenant, were killed in a clash with Daesh-linked rebels on a remote southern island in the Philippines, an army spokesman said on Monday as the army offensive entered its fifth day.

During the fight, 17 soldiers were wounded.

In its latest strike yesterday, the Philippines military was reported to have killed an Abu Sayyaf sub-leader named Mohammad Said, also known as “Ama Maas” who has five standing warrants for murder, the Manila Bulletin reported.

“Let us vigorously pursue these terrorist/bandit Abu Sayyaf Group with no let up and destroy them”, Gen. Visaya said during a recent high-level operations briefing.

Angered by the beheading of 18-year-old James Almodavar whose his family failed to produce P1 million ransom, President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday night (August 24) last week ordered the military and police forces to hunt down the bandit group and “destroy them”.

“We expect more troops from the national headquarters will be deployed in Sulu in the next days”, said Tan.

The group kidnapped the two Canadians, Sekkingstad and Filipina Marites Flor from a high-end resort on Samal Island in Davao del Norte in September a year ago.

He further said the Takfiri militants were holding about 20 hostages, including eight Indonesians, five Malaysians, a Norwegian and a Dutch citizen.

“My order to the police and to the armed forces: seek them out in their lairs and destroy them”, he said.

The Abu Sayyaf has dogged successive Philippine governments, entrenching its network with vast sums of ransom money in what has become one of Asia’s most lucrative kidnap rackets.

Other bodies of slain Abu Sayyaf fighters could not be recovered as they were taken away by the retreating militants, Col. Edgard Arevalo, chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ public affairs office, was quoted by Inquirer as saying.

Responding to the incident, President Duterte vowed on Thursday to annihilate the bandit group.