Two soldiers were slain when a group of Abu Sayyaf men under sub-leader Morasil Mudjahirin ambushed them Tuesday morning along the provincial road in Sitio Tibongbong, Barangay Igasan, Patikul, Sulu.
Initial reports reaching Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City said the slain soldiers were Corporals Lamustre and Apiado, intelligence operatives of the 10th Infantry Battalion.
The ambush happened at around 8:10 a.m.while the two soldiers were on board a black motorcycle going to Barangay Buhanginan.
The soldiers were in civilian clothes to conduct intelligence operation in connection with the kidnapping of Canadians John Ridsdel, 68, and Robert Hall, 50; Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad; and Hall’s Filipina girlfriend Maritess Flor.
Last week, the ASG posted on Internet a video giving the foreigners’ families one month, from March 8 to April 8, to deliver the P1-billion ransom each or else they will be beheaded.
In response, the military said it will stick to the government’s “no-ransom policy” and work harder to rescue the victims before the ultimatum expires.
In the video that was posted on Facebook account Pamantasan Ng Tawheed At Jihaad Filibin, Ridsdel appealed: “…for my life they have to my family and this is so much bigger than family to the Canadian Prime Minister and the Canadian people in the world. Please do what is needed to meet their demand within one month or they will kill me or execute us,” Ridsdel cried.
Hall was next to appeal.
“My name is Robert Hall. I’m a Canadian citizen. I’m being…by the Abu Sayyaf for ransom the amount I don’t know what it is. But the Canadian government has to get off us out and do what is necessary to get us out here soon within one month before this happens,” he said.
“My name is Kjartan Sekkingstad…the Abu Sayyaf in Sulu Island. This is the last message, last message…friends and authority. Call a negotiation and try to meet their demands in 30 days or we are all dead.”
All the victims were on their knees including Flor. At their back were seven to eight terrorists and the others far behind and with their bare faces except one that appeared to be their leader.
After the victims’ pleadings, the terrorist spoke in his native language and then these words: “Now we will give a warning for one preparation for the families to meet the demand. Once you …the negotiations within one month starting today, March 8, 2016 to April 8, 2016. If you think that your policy is better for you than the lives of the captives certainly we will do something terrible against these captives.”
After that the terrorists shouted “Allalahu Akbar.”
The victims were abducted from Hall’s Ocean View Samal Resort in September 2015 in Barangay Camudmud in Babac district in the Island Garden City of Samal by armed men believed to be members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front led by alias Red Eye.
Later, the kidnappers brought them to Sulu and passed them to the ASG for ransom negotiation.