Muslim Militants behead seven workers on Jolo island

The Straits Times, April 21, 2007


GRISLY DELIVERY: The bodies of seven men decapitated by militants were sent by truck to an army base on Jolo island, southern Philippines.






MANILA - FILIPINOS recoiled in disgust and the military stepped up its offensive yesterday after Muslim militants decapitated seven workers and sent their heads to army bases.

Local television showed soldiers laying banana leaves over the headless corpses, lying on the back of a pickup truck. The youngest victim was a 16-year-old boy who held a summer job on Jolo to fund a college course.

The military suspects that the Abu Sayyaf group may have beheaded the road workers in retaliation, after soldiers killed more than 70 of its members, including two top leaders, in an eight-month US-backed campaign.

It also was an attempt to drive a stake in the heart of high-profile US and Philippine efforts to portray Jolo as a land rapidly emerging from decades of lawlessness and violence.

The armed forces have ordered their troops to step up operations against the Abu Sayyaf and members of regional terrorist network Jemaah Islamiah, who use the southern island of Jolo in the Sulu archipelago as a base to plan and train for attacks.

'The beheading of the seven captives in Sulu once again demonstrates the Abu Sayyaf's ruthlessness and only strengthens our resolve to neutralise them,' President Gloria Arroyo said in a statement.

The military estimates that the Abu Sayyaf's core strength has been halved from around 400 fighters due to the operation.

In the southern city of Cotabato, Aleem Sharif Jul Aberin, the mufti of the Sulu archipelago, said decapitating people defied reason and religion.

In Manila, people said the military should storm the Abu Sayyaf's hideouts.

'These people have no place in this world. They are the scum of the earth. They should be the ones killed, not innocent people,' said Francisco Layug, 42, a taxi driver in the capital.

The wife of one of the men killed said one of the captors had called her on her husband's mobile phone to apologise for what they were about to do.

Rubelyn delos Reyes, 35, pleaded for mercy.

'The saddest thing is that my eldest daughter Neslyn is celebrating her 15th birthday today; they are so cruel.'

REUTERS, ASSOCIATED PRESS