Philippines military arrests two foreigner killing militants

• Almujer Yadah and Ben Quirino are suspected of the kidnapping and murder of four foreigners.
• They were turned over to police on Jolo Island in Sulu province.
• Abu Sayyaf is a loose coalition of Muslim insurgents, some of whom are affiliated with the Islamic State.

Two Islamic militants accused of kidnapping and murdering four foreigners in the volatile southern Philippines surrendered to the military on Friday, as per the authorities.

Alaric Delos Santos, regional military spokesperson, told France news agency that the fugitives were members of the infamous kidnap-for-ransom gang Abu Sayyaf and had been turned over to police on Jolo Island in Sulu province.

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Abu Sayyaf is a loose coalition of Muslim insurgents, some of whom are affiliated with the Islamic State, that has committed bombings and kidnappings for ransom during the past three decades.

Almujer Yadah and Ben Quirino are suspected of the kidnapping and subsequent deaths of German sailor Jurgen Kantner and his female lover and companion in November 2016.

The body of a woman with a gunshot wound was discovered on the boat that sailed adrift in the Sulu Sea after being abducted by kidnappers.

Early in 2017, Kantner was transported to Jolo and executed by his captors after they allegedly attempted to negotiate a payment.

The Canadians, John Ridsdel and Robert Hall, who were taken in September 2015 together with Hall’s Filipina fiancée and a Norwegian guy from a resort, were also allegedly murdered by the extremists.

Ridsdel and Hall were beheaded by the Abu Sayyaf in 2016, while the woman and the Norwegian were eventually released unhurt.

Delos Santos stated that in the past two years, there have been no kidnappings in the region.

He claimed that approximately twenty Abu Sayyaf terrorists remained active in the region.

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In the past, they have targeted commercial ships in the south and kidnapped Malaysian, Indonesian, and Vietnamese crewmen.