MANILA: A Filipino soldier kidnapped last week in the southern Philippines by Abu Sayyaf militants was found beheaded, the military said on Sunday, hours after government troops killed three more members of the Islamic State-linked group in a clash elsewhere.
The head of Sergeant Anni Siraji of the Army’s 32nd Infantry Battalion was found 50 meters away from his body in Patikul town in Sulu, Brig. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana, commander of the Joint Task Force Sulu, said.
Sobejana said Siraji was probably abducted and executed because of his involvement in peace initiatives in Sulu.
“He is involved in peace efforts. He is not actually a combatant. We are using him to engage stakeholders because he is a Tausog (like most Abu Sayyaf militants),” he said.
Earlier on Sunday, the military said government troops had killed three more Abu Sayyaf militants on the resort island of Bohol where they were hiding after a failed attempt to kidnap tourists.
The military was pursuing two or three more militants still at large in Bohol, a long way to the north of their strongholds in the far south of the predominately Christian country.
“We have reports indicating that they were also wounded and running out of supplies,” Col. Edgard Arevalo, chief of the military’s public affairs office, said.
A group of about 10 militants infiltrated Bohol this month. Western countries have issued travel warnings about visiting the island.
Six of them were killed in a clash on April 11 and one last week.
Among those killed was their leader, who had been involved in the kidnap and execution of Canadian and German nationals in recent months, the Philippine military has said.
The military has been struggling to wipe out Abu Sayyaf, which originally had Muslim separatist aims but now engages mostly in banditry and piracy.
The group has been holding more than two dozen captives, most of them Vietnamese sailors, who are easy prey for militants equipped with small, fast boats.
Abu Sayyaf militants behead kidnapped Philippine soldier — army
Abu Sayyaf militants behead kidnapped Philippine soldier — army
Russian drone attack forces power cuts in Ukraine’s Kryvyi Rih, military says
- Kyiv says the campaign has forced rolling outages and emergency cuts to cities across the country, as repair crews work under fire and Ukraine relies on air defenses and electricity imports to stabilize the grid
KYIV: Russian drones struck infrastructure in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih on Wednesday, forcing emergency power blackouts for more than 45,000 customers and disrupting heat supplies, military administration head Oleksandr Vilkul said.
“Please fill up on water and charge your devices, if you have the chance. It’s going to be difficult,” Vilkul said on the Telegram messaging app.
Water utility pumping stations switched to generators and water remained in the system, but there could be pressure problems.
The full scale of the attack was not immediately known. There was no comment from Russia about the strike.
Russia has repeatedly struck Ukraine’s power plants, substations and transmission lines with missiles and drones, seeking to knock out electricity and heating and hinder industry during the nearly four-year war.
Kyiv says the campaign has forced rolling outages and emergency cuts to cities across the country, as repair crews work under fire and Ukraine relies on air defenses and electricity imports to stabilize the grid.
Kryvyi Rih, a steel-and-mining hub in the Dnipropetrovsk region and President Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown, has been hit repeatedly, with strikes killing civilians and damaging homes and industry.
The city sits close enough to southern front lines to be within strike range, while its factories, logistics links and workforce make it economically important and a key rear-area center supporting Ukraine’s war effort.
