21 October 2016•Update: 21 October 2016
By Hader Glang
ZAMBOANGA CITY, the Philippines
Suspected members of a Daesh-linked group have kidnapped a South Korean captain and a Filipino crew member from a cargo ship off a troubled southern Philippines island province, according to the military Friday.
Maj. Filemon Tan Jr., Western Mindanao Command spokesman, said in a statement that the South Korean-flagged vessel was hijacked off the majority Muslim province of Tawi-Tawi by 10 armed men riding a speedboat.
The gunmen are suspected to be members of the Abu Sayyaf militant group under the leadership of Jul Hassan and Idang Susukan, who have been tagged as behind several cross-border raids in the eastern Malaysian state of Sabah.
Susukan, who is based on the nearby island province of Sulu, has been linked by the military to the beheading of Malaysian hostage Bernard Then after his family failed to pay a ransom in November 2015.
"The Joint Task Force Tawi-Tawi alerted all units and dispatched military assets for counteraction," Tan said in Friday’s statement.
"As of this press time, validation and intelligence monitoring are currently being conducted by the military in coordination with local chief executives and the locals to track down the perpetrators and safely rescue the victims," he added.
Kidnap-for-ransom gangs frequently operate in the seas between the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia.
They are known to hand over their captives to the Abu Sayyaf and negotiate for a ransom that, if paid, is shared with the group.
Since the beginning of this year, Abu Sayyaf-linked gunmen have seized more than 25 Indonesians and Malaysians in a series of abductions in the Sulu and Celebes seas between the archipelagoes.
Since 1991, the Abu Sayyaf -- armed with mostly improvised explosive devices, mortars and automatic rifles -- has carried out bombings, kidnappings, assassinations and extortion in a self-determined fight for an independent province in the Philippines.
It is one of two militant groups in the south to have pledged allegiance to Daesh, prompting fears during the stalling of a peace process between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebel group that it could make inroads in a region torn by decades of armed conflict.
