Militant camps captured in Philippines after beheading

By Roy Ramos & Hader Glang

ZAMBOANGA CITY, the Philippines (AA) - The Philippines’ military announced Tuesday that troops overran two camps used by a Daesh-linked militant group that beheaded a Canadian hostage last week.

Maj. Filemon Tan Jr., Western Mindanao Command spokesman, said in a statement that the camps in Talipao town in the majority Muslim island province of Sulu - an Abu Sayyaf stronghold - were captured Monday during a clearing operation.

"The said camps can accommodate approximately 150 persons and have running trenches with potable water within the perimeter," said Tan.

He added that hammocks, water containers and other personal belongings of Abu Sayyaf members were recovered, but there were no signs of the group’s captives.

Meanwhile, the director of the Philippine National Police's crime laboratory revealed Tuesday that DNA test results confirmed that a severed head recovered in Sulu’s capital, Jolo, last week belonged to Canadian captive Robert Hall, whose body has not been found.

“I would like to inform the public that finally we have confirmed the identification of the decapitated head… the head that was recovered is indeed that of Mr. Robert Hall,” the state-run Philippine News Agency quoted Chief Superintendent Emmanuel Aranas as saying.

Hall was executed June 13 after a deadline set by the Abu Sayyaf for the delivery of a 600 million peso ($13 million) ransom was missed.

His beheading followed that of another Canadian captive April 25 after a 300 million peso ransom also failed to be paid. John Ridsdel's body was found in a mountainous clearing near Talipao days later.

The two Canadians were seized by armed men from a high-end resort on Samal Island in September 2015, along with Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad and Filipina Marites Flor.

They were later brought to Sulu.

Since 1991, the Abu Sayyaf group - 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.