Militant group beheads German in Philippines

The Philippines-based ultra-violent Abu Sayyaf Takfiri terrorist group has decapitated a German hostage after a deadline for a ransom expired, drawing strong condemnation from Manila for the “barbaric beheading.”

A short video posted online on Monday by the Takfiri group and circulated by the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors terrorist groups, showed German national Jurgen Gustav Kantner kneeling on a grassy clearing and saying “Now he kills me,” a few moments before a masked machete-wielding terrorist decapitated the elderly man.

The Abu Sayyaf terrorists assaulted Kantner and his wife Sabine Merz when they were sailing on a 53-footer yacht near Sabah, in eastern Malaysia. They shot dead Merz as she resisted the abduction but kidnapped Kantner and took him to Jolo, a volcanic island in southwestern Philippines, which also serves as the stronghold of the Takfiri group.

Since then the German had appeared in two videos, appealing for help, saying he would be killed if the set ransom - 30 million pesos ($600,000) - was not paid. The militants had previously announced that they would spare 70-year-old Kantner if they were paid the money on Sunday.  

The ill-fated couple had previously been abducted and held hostage by a militant group for over 50 days in Somalia in 2008 and were freed only after a huge ransom was paid.

Meanwhile, Jesus Dureza, the presidential adviser on the Philippine peace process, confirmed the death in a statement, saying officials had invested all efforts to save the German but to no avail.

"We grieve as we strongly condemn the barbaric beheading of yet another kidnap victim,” he said, adding, “Terrorism has no place in a country like ours and we as a people must confront violent extremism every time it rears its ugly head. There must be a stop to this killing of the innocent and the helpless."

The Abu Sayyaf group, established in the early 1990s, pledged alliance to the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in the summer of 2014 and has been involved in a number of criminal activities, including rape and drug trafficking, in what they describe as their battle for an independent province in the Philippines. The group, however, mainly relies on kidnapping for its finances and many say its ideological and religious claims are meant to hide its focus on the lucrative business.

The loose criminal network, whose name literally means “Father of Swordsmith” in Arabic, has reportedly diminished greatly in number after it lost over 800 militants in 12 years since 2000, shrinking to a group of between 200 and 400 members, but continues to survive on ransom and extortion.

According to the Philippine military, Abu Sayyaf militants are believed to be currently holding over a dozen foreign hostages, including a South Korean and several Vietnamese crewmen of a cargo ship, along with a number of Filipinos.

Since August last year, thousands of troops have been deployed to the country's southern territories after President  Rodrigo Duterte ordered a massive military operation against Abu Sayyaf. However, fierce resistance by the militants has made it difficult for the military to make any tangible breakthrough.

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