Two Vietnamese sailors who were held hostage for eight months in the southern Philippines were beheaded by militants, Philippine Army said on Wednesday.
Philippine military spokesperson Captain Jo-Ann Petinglay said that the troops found the remains of the hostages on Wednesday morning on the island of Basilan, which is a stronghold of the notorious Abu Sayyaf kidnap-for-ransom group.
"Our troops found the headless bodies after local residents alerted us about the cadavers," Petinglay told reporters, adding that the heads were found beside the bodies.
"This is a desperate measure of the Abu Sayyaf Group because they see they have no gains from their kidnap-for-ransom activity," Petinglay added, according to Channel News Asia reports.
The two Vietnamese were kidnapped last November along with four other Vietnamese crew members of a vessel which was boarded by the militants off the southern region of Mindanao, the military said.
One of the six crewmen seized by the militants was rescued in June while three others are still in captivity, Petinglay said.
Abu Sayyaf Group, a network of militants which was formulated in the 1990s with money from al-Qaeda network, has split into factions where some continue to engage in kidnappings and banditry to extort money.
One of the factions of the Abu Sayyaf Group has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (ISIS) group, with the ISIS militants taking siege of parts of Marawi in the Philippines. Marawi is the most important Islamic city of a largely Catholic nation.
Reports state that nearly 400,000 people have been displaced since the siege began in May by the militants. The ISIS fighters continue to occupy parts of Marawi despite a US-backed military offensive active in the region. More than 460 people have been dead in the battle between militants and Philippine forces.
