Philippines: Teacher abducted by Daesh-linked militants

By Hader Glang

ZAMBOANGA CITY, the Philippines (AA) – The Philippines’ military confirmed late Tuesday that an elementary school teacher was abducted by suspected members of a Daesh-linked group in a troubled island province in the country’s Muslim south.

Maj. Filemon Tan, Jr., Western Mindanao Command spokesman, said in a statement that the 30-year-old woman was seized by five gunmen in Liang village in Sulu’s Patikul town.

She had been headed to school on board a vehicle when the suspected Abu Sayyaf members forcibly removed her and dragged her off to a forested area.

According to Tan, two of the five abductors have been identified.

Last month, Abu Sayyaf militants seized a couple and their companion in another village in Patikul.

The abduction of the teacher has increased the number of the hostages believed to be held by the group to 18, including a Norwegian, a Dutchman, three Malaysians and at least seven Indonesians.

The latest kidnapping in Sulu came four days after President Rodrigo Duterte visited the province and instructed troops conducting intensified military offensives against the Abu Sayyaf to “destroy” the group.

"Those who want to destroy us, you destroy. Not just fight but destroy," Duterte said.

Since 1991, the Abu Sayyaf -- armed with mostly improvised explosive devices, mortars and automatic rifles -- has carried out bombings, kidnappings, assassinations and extortions in a self-determined fight for an independent province in the Philippines.

It is notorious for beheading victims after ransoms have failed to be paid for their release.

The Abu Sayyaf is among two militant groups in the south who have pledged allegiance to Daesh, prompting fears during the stalling of a peace process between the government and the country's biggest Moro group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, that Daesh could make inroads in a region torn by decades of armed conflict.