According to the transcript released by SITE Intelligence group, a group that monitors jihadist activity, the video ends with the captors saying, “Now there are three remaining captives here”.
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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned the brutal killing but vowed not to give in to the kidnappers’ ransom demand.
Abu Sayyaf had demanded ransom of around $6.4 million for each of the three Western hostages before April 25 and a few hours after the expiry of the deadline, the group beheaded Ridsdel and left his severed head in a bag in Jolo town in Sulu province, where the hostages are believed to have been held.
He also asked the Philippines government to “stop shooting at us and trying to kill us”.
She said that the 51-second-long video stated “John Ridsdel was beheaded on 4/25, due to non-compliance of Canadian Gov”.
Security is precarious in the resource-rich south of the largely Christian Philippines, despite a 2014 peace pact between the government and the largest Muslim rebel group that ended 45 years of conflict.
In the footage, which appears to be from a hand-held camera, a masked militant warns Canada and the Philippines that the three men will be killed “if you procrastinate once again”. They’re gonna do a good job at that’.
The United States and the Philippines have separately blacklisted the Abu Sayyaf for kidnappings for ransom, beheadings and bombings.
“I’m told to tell you to meet the demand”. Now there are three remaining captives here.
“We have talked to the base commander, then the MILF CCCH (Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities) to establish and relay the general area of operations, and the men of Hamsa Sapanton of the provincial police force were repositioned, they were relocated from Baguindan to Bohe Piyang”, Macasero said.
The four Indonesians, whose current location is unknown, were crew members on the TB Henry tugboat and Christi barge when they were kidnapped by militants linked on April 15 in the waters between Malaysia and the Philippines, EFE news reported.
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They threatened to behead the hostages – two Canadian men, a Norwegian man and a Filipino woman – who were taken from a southern island last September.
