Kindgo
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Thu Aug 22, 9:11 AM ET
JOLO, Philippines (Reuters) - Muslim guerrillas in the Philippines have beheaded two Christian preachers in a grisly response to government claims that they are on the run and close to defeat.
The riposte from the Abu Sayyaf, linked by Washington to Osama bin Laden ( news - web sites)'s al Qaeda network, came less than three weeks after U.S. special forces ended a six-month counter-terrorism exercise designed to help local troops defeat their movement.
Officials said the heads were found on Thursday wrapped in plastic in the main town of Patikul on southern Jolo island, two days after the Abu Sayyaf seized the two male preachers and six other hostages. One head was in a fruit stall in a public market.
"This is what will happen to those who do not believe in Allah...This is part of our jihad (holy war)," said a note found near one of the heads of the preachers, who were Filipinos from the Christian-dominated mainland city of Zamboanga.
The army reacted by pounding suspected rebel lairs near Patikul with rockets and cannon.
"This is a barbaric act by a barbaric group trying to propagate their religion," Jolo army commander Brigadier Romeo Tolentino said.
Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ( news - web sites) said in June and July the military had substantially reduced the capabilities and strengths of what is the country's most extreme Muslim group.
Her claim followed a gun battle in the Zamboanga peninsula in which senior Abu Sayyaf leader Abu Sabaya was believed killed.
"We condemn the atrocities committed by this group," Philippine Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said simply, when asked by reporters how Arroyo took the latest Abu Sayyaf challenge.
The Abu Sayyaf says it is fighting for a Muslim homeland in the south of the mainly Roman Catholic Philippines, but its activities are mostly restricted to kidnap for ransom.
It freed two of the six hostages seized on Tuesday, both Muslims. It currently holds seven hostages, including three Indonesian seamen captured by pirates and handed over to it.
The group beheaded an American hostage and at least two Filipinos last year.
JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES
Authorities initially described the hostages as cosmetics sales agents, but military commander Tolentino said they had been wrongly identified and were Jehovah's Witnesses. He also said the hostages, all local residents, included four women.
Two hostages -- both Muslims -- were freed, but the four women were still in captivity, he added.
Tolentino said both the dead had been identified by their families. One head was found by residents in a fruit stall at a public market and the other on a dirt road leading to military headquarters on southern Jolo, a largely Muslim area 960 km (600 miles) south of Manila.
Officials said the murdered men and the four women still held hostage were all residents of Zamboanga. They had been carrying Bibles and Christian leaflets when they were kidnapped.
The Abu Sayyaf fiercely opposes efforts by Christian missionaries to evangelize Muslim areas and demands the removal of Christian crosses there.
Jolo, a lawless island bristling with armed gangs, is dominated by Muslims. It is a stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf, but home to other groups fighting Manila's rule, bandits and pirates.
The United States has linked the Abu Sayyaf to the al Qaeda network, which it blames for the September 11 suicide hijack attacks on New York and Washington.
The latest abductions came less than three weeks after U.S. troops formally ended maneuveres on Basilan and nearby.
Several hundred U.S. troops remain on Basilan, about 100 km (60 miles) northeast of Jolo, performing civic or medical duties.
In June this year, the Philippine military rescued American missionary Gracia Burnham from more than a year of captivity by the Abu Sayyaf, but her husband and a Filipina nurse also held hostage were killed in the fighting.
An American tourist held hostage with the Burnhams, Guillermo Sobero, was beheaded by the group last year.
Pirates seized four Indonesian crewmen of a Singaporean-owned tugboat on June 17. One escaped. The kidnappers turned the other three over to the Abu Sayyaf.
The guerrillas made some $20 million in 2000 from ransoms for Western tourists, whom they kidnapped from a Malaysian diving resort and later took to Jolo.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...s_hostages_dc_9
These poor people were not Christians they were lost to the Jehovah's Witnesses !cult ![[tears]](graemlins/cry2.gif) ![[crying]](graemlins/crying.gif)
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God bless,
Kindgo
Inside the will of God there is no failure. Outside the will of God there is no success.
Posts: 4320 | From: Sunny Florida | Registered: Jun 2002
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