ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 05 Jan) – Government soldiers were hunting down a group of bandits behind the gruesome murder of two kidnapped traders in the southern Philippine province of Zamboanga del Norte, officials said Friday.
Officials said the two men, seized last week, were beheaded. The bodies were discovered by patrolling soldiers two days ago on a remote village in Sibuco town.
The motive of the killing was unknown, although the police and military suspect the victims may have been executed after they failed to pay ransom money. There were no immediate statements from the victims' families.
Officials said no individual or group claimed responsibility for the grizzly murder, but the police tagged a former commander of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front-turned-bandit leader Majid Abdulhaman as responsible for the killings.
“There is an operation in the town,” said Major Eugene Batarra, a regional army spokesman. Aside from bandits, MILF rebels and Abu Sayyaf militants, whose group is tied to al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiya, are actively operating in the area. (Mindanao Examiner)
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