The Philippine military said Monday it was trying to verify a claim by Abu Sayyaf militants that they had kidnapped a German man from a yacht and shot and killed his wife in the Sulu Sea. Villagers reported finding a dead woman lying beside a shotgun on board a blue yacht with the German flag and marked "Rockall" off Laparan Island in Sulu province, authorities said.

Regional military spokesman Major Filemon Tan said Abu Sayyaf had claimed the militants kidnapped 70-year-old Jürgen Kantner and killed his companion - whom AFP news agency identified as Sabine Merz - while the couple were cruising near Malaysia. Two German passports belonging to the couple were found on board. An audio recording of a known Abu Sayyaf leader claimed responsibility for the raid on the yacht, and the abducted German man also spoke in the recording, Tan said.

The couple had run into trouble before. While sailing on the 53-foot Rockall in the Gulf of Aden, Somali seized them and held them hostage for 52 days in 2008. They were released and described their ordeal - which included a mock execution in a 2009 interview.

"My boat is my life and I don't want to lose her, nothing more. I don't care about pirates and governments," Kantner said in a 2009 interview with the AFP news agency while in Berbera, the main port in Somaliland.

The Abu Sayyaf, a loose network of militants based in remote southern islands in the southern Philippines, has defied more than a decade of US-backed military operations seeking to eradicate it and has turned to lucrative kidnapping sprees in recent years.

The militants abducted another German couple off a yacht in the southern Philippines in 2014 and released the pair six months later after receiving what they said was the full ransom demand of 250 million pesos (4.6 million euros, $5.1 million).

A confidential Filipino government threat assessment report seen by the Associated Press said the militants have made off with at least 353 million pesos ($7.3 million) from ransom kidnappings in the first six months of the year and have turned to abductions of foreign tugboat crews as military offensives restrict their movements. The government report said the Abu Sayyaf had 481 fighters with 438 firearms in the first half of the year but the military reported last week that it had killed 70 of the militants and captured 32 others since July.

jar/kms (AFP, AP)</s>MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippine military is verifying a claim by Abu Sayyaf militants that they have kidnapped a German man from a yacht and shot and killed his female companion, whose suspected body was found in the abandoned boat in the southern Philippines, officials said Monday.

Regional military spokesman Maj. Filemon Tan said Abu Sayyaf spokesman Muamar Askali had claimed the militants kidnapped Juegen Kantner and killed his companion while the couple were cruising off neighboring Malaysia’s Sabah state.

It’s not clear why the woman was purportedly killed, but it’s possible she may have fought back or tried to escape, Tan and another military official said.

Villagers reported finding a dead woman lying beside a shotgun on board a light blue yacht with the German flag and marked “Rockall” off Laparan Island in Sulu province, Tan said. The southern province is where the ransom-seeking militants hold their hostages in tropical jungle encampments.

Troops took custody of the woman’s body and the yacht Monday. The body and the yacht were being examined by police investigators in Tawi Tawi province, near Sulu, as part of efforts to verify the Abu Sayyaf’s claim, the military’s Western Mindanao Command said in a statement.

“Alarming is that the body found was naked and had several contusions to the face and was possibly raped,” the military said.

If the attack on the couple is confirmed, it would be the latest in a wave of attacks at sea by the Abu Sayyaf and allied gunmen despite efforts by the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia to jointly shore up security in their busy sea border, where Indonesians and Malaysians have been kidnapped from tugboats and fishing boats in recent months.

Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry confirmed receiving information about the separate kidnappings of two Indonesian skippers of vessels off Sabah over the weekend, saying it was touch with Malaysian and Philippine government officials about the latest kidnappings.

Indonesia’s government has called on Indonesian crewmen in Sabah to avoid sailing in the risky waters until security has improved, the ministry said.

The kidnappings have continued despite one of the largest military offensives against the Abu Sayyaf, mainly in Sulu and the nearby island province of Basilan, involving more than 6,000 troops, navy gunboats and rocket-firing air force aircraft.

Without a known foreign source of funds, the Abu Sayyaf has survived mostly on ransom kidnappings, extortion and other acts of banditry.

A confidential Philippine government threat assessment report seen by The Associated Press said the militants have pocketed at least 353 million pesos ($7.3 million) from ransom kidnappings in the first six months of the year and have turned to abductions of foreign tugboat crewmen as military offensives restricted their mobility.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who took office on June 30, has ordered troops to destroy the Abu Sayyaf, known for its brutality and ties to some foreign militants, and has ruled out the possibility of any peace talks with them. He has pursued talks with two other larger Muslim insurgent groups.

Duterte intends to discuss with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak possible solutions to end the Abu Sayyaf kidnapping menace in the region when he makes a visit to Malaysia starting on Wednesday.

The government report said the Abu Sayyaf had 481 fighters with 438 firearms in the first half of the year, but the military reported last week that it had killed 70 of the militants and captured 32 others since July in Basilan and Sulu, a Muslim province about 950 kilometers (590 miles) south of Manila.

The Abu Sayyaf, which is blacklisted by the U.S. and the Philippines as a terrorist organization, still holds more than a dozen foreign and local hostages.

Anticipating that the Abu Sayyaf may soon demand the German to be ransomed off, Tan appealed for people to follow the Philippine government’s no-ransom policy.

“If we give in to ransom, a greater damage will be done. They can use the money to buy arms and to feed their bandits and that will fuel again the tendency for them to kidnap,” Tan said. “It becomes a lucrative business.”</s>0MANILA: Soldiers have found the body of a German woman on an abandoned yacht in the troubled waters of the southern Philippines and suspect her companion may have been taken captive by Islamist Abu Sayyaf rebels, the military said yesterday.

The body was found naked and with gunshot wounds on the yacht which bore a German flag and was docked on a remote island in the Sulu archipelago, a stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf, an al-Qaeda linked group notorious for kidnapping and increasingly, piracy.

“A shotgun was found near her body,” army spokesman Major Filemon Tan told reporters.

“We are verifying reports a German national … was taken captive by the Abu Sayyaf.”

Tan said an Abu Sayyaf leader, Muamar Askali, had made claims on radio that they were holding a 70-year-old German after intercepting the yacht in Sabah, eastern Malaysia, last week. — AFP</s>"The ASG (Abu Sayyaf group) is claiming to have kidnapped German National Juegen Kantner but the military needs to verify that," Western Mindanao Command spokesman Maj. Filemon Tan Jr. told CNN.

Abu Sayyaf spokesman Abu Rami made the claim, saying Kantner had been kidnapped in waters off Malaysia's Sabah state, Tan said. Tan said he had heard a voice recording in which Kantner, 70, appeared to be asking about his female companion, believed to be Sabina Wetch.

On Sunday, residents of Laparan Island in the Mindanao island group discovered the body of a female foreigner believed to be aged in her fifties on a yacht bearing a German flag and the name "Rock all (sic)," Western Mindanao Command said on its Facebook page. Accompanying images show the name as "Rockall."

The command is investigating whether the body is Wetch's.

"We are 95% sure the features of the deceased woman matched the photo on a passport, also recovered from the boat," Tan told CNN. He said the body had gunshot wounds and bruising to the face. "The woman was in pretty bad shape," he said. Commenting on reports that Kantner and Wetch had been kidnapped and later freed by Somali pirates in 2008, Tan said he believed that to be the case, referencing another sailor's blog. Abu Sayyaf is headquartered in the restive Muslim-majority province of Mindanao in the country's far south. The violent extremist group split from established Philippines separatist movement Moro National Liberation Front in 1991. The Philippines is a predominantly Catholic country, but the south has historically had a large Muslim population. Abu Sayyaf's stated aim is to establish an independent Islamic state on the southern island of Mindanao. The group first became active in the early 1990s and was responsible for bombings across the southern Philippines and in the Malaysian state of Sabah. Following the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, Washington worked hard with the Philippine military to stop the group's activities. Largely weakened by these attacks, Abu Sayyaf started to move from large-scale bombings to kidnappings. The seas around the Philippines are the most pirated in the world, according to data producer IHS Markit. Armed cells affiliated with Abu Sayyaf are suspected to have been behind at least six known cases of kidnap-for-ransom in waters off Sabah and the Southern Philippines between March and July, it said in a statement Sunday. "The group has carried out kidnap-for-ransom operations in the past, but these were mostly from locations ashore," naval analyst Ridzwan Rahmat said. "This latest spate of attacks at sea, taking place also within a relatively short time period, represents an escalation compared to what previously were isolated incidents," Rahmat said. , according to CNN Philippines. , according to CNN Philippines. In September, Abu Sayyaf freed a Norwegian man it had held captive for almost a year , according to CNN Philippines. At the time, Tan told CNN Philippines Kjartan Sekikngstad's release was an offshoot of ongoing military operations against the Abu Sayyaf group. The Moro National Liberation Front assisted authorities in the operation, he said. Sekkingstad was abducted from a resort on Samal Island, in September 2015, alongside two Canadians and a Filipino woman, who was released. Abu Sayyaf initially demanded a $6.3 million ransom for each of the victims to be paid by April 25, according to Philippine state media, one Canadian was killed after that deadline expired and the second after a subsequent June deadline. The Filipino woman was released in June. It is unclear whether a ransom was paid to secure Sekkingstad's release.</s>MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippine military is trying to verify a claim by Abu Sayyaf militants that they have kidnapped a German man from a yacht and shot and killed his girlfriend in the southern Philippines, a military spokesman said Monday.

Regional military spokesman Maj. Filemon Tan said Abu Sayyaf spokesman Muamar Askali had claimed the militants kidnapped Juegen Kantner and killed his companion while the couple were cruising off neighboring Malaysia.

It’s not clear why the woman was purportedly killed but it’s possible she may have fought back or tried to escape, Tan and another military official said.

Villagers reported finding a dead woman lying beside a shotgun on board a blue yacht with the German flag and marked “Rock All” off Laparan Island in Sulu province, Tan said. The southern province is where the ransom-seeking militants hold their hostages in tropical jungle encampments.

Marines were deployed to verify the villagers’ report and have been ordered “to be careful in approaching the vessel because it might be rigged with explosives.”

If the attack on the couple is confirmed, it would be the latest in a wave of attacks at sea by the Abu Sayyaf and allied gunmen despite efforts by the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia to jointly shore up security in their busy sea border, where Indonesians and Malaysians have been kidnapped from tugboats and fishing boats in recent months.

The kidnappings have continued despite one of the largest military offensives against the Abu Sayyaf mainly in Sulu and the nearby island province of Basilan that involves more than 6,000 troops, navy gunboats and rocket-firing air force aircraft.

Without a known foreign source of funds, the Abu Sayyaf has survived mostly on ransom kidnappings, extortion and other acts of banditry.

A confidential Philippine government threat assessment report seen by The Associated Press said the militants have pocketed at least 353 million pesos ($7.3 million) from ransom kidnappings in the first six months of the year and have turned to abductions of foreign tugboat crewmen as military offensives restricted their mobility.

President Rodrigo Duterte, who took office in June, has ordered troops to destroy Abu Sayyaf, known for its brutality and ties to some foreign militants, and he has ruled out the possibility of any peace talks with them. He has pursued talks with two other larger Muslim insurgent groups.

Duterte intends to discuss with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak possible solutions to end the Abu Sayyaf kidnapping menace in the region when he makes an overnight visit to Malaysia starting on Wednesday.

The government report said the Abu Sayyaf had 481 fighters with 438 firearms in the first half of the year but the military reported last week that it had killed 70 of the militants and captured 32 others since July.

At least 28 government troops have died and nearly 100 others have been wounded in the military assaults in Basilan and Sulu, a Muslim province about 590 miles (950 kilometers) south of Manila.</s>The Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) struck again last week, seizing a German sailor and killing his wife off Pangutaran, Sulu, the military said Monday.

The body of Sabina Wetch was found on board the yacht Rockall Sunday, Maj. Felimon Tan, spokesman of the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ (AFP) Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom)

The military said ASG sub-leader Muamar Askali alias Abu Rami had claimed that his group abducted Juegen Kantner.

Tan said the military had recovered the couple’s yacht, and the body of a naked white woman who had been shot was aboard. The passports of Kantner and Merz were found on the Rockall.

He said the military had listened to an audio recording of Rami and Kantner also spoke on the phone call.

 Kantner, 70, identified his companion as Sabine, according to Tan.

The victims were the same as those abducted by Somali pirates off the Gulf of Aden and held hostage for 52 days in 2008.

Tan said the military is coordinating with scene of the crime operatives (SOCO) to determine if the woman was raped before she was killed because there were indications that she was sexually molested.

The military theorized that the victim was killed when she tried to fight with the jihadists by grabbing the shotgun.

 “Hindi siguro matiis ng babae yung ginawa, baka nakita yung shotgun na nakatago, lumaban binanatan nila (Maybe she could not take what they did to her, she saw the shotgun and tried to fight her attackers),” Tan surmised.

The kidnapping happened despite the massive military operations being conducted in the ASG strongholds in Sulu and Basilan. Armed Forces chief Gen. Ricardo Visaya has ordered the military to use all available war materiel to finish off the terrorist group.

The AFP had claimed gaining significant headway in its campaign against the ASG in Basilan and Sulu since President Rodrigo Duterte ordered in July the “total decimation” of the extremist group.

In an earlier presentation to Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, Visaya said at least 579 massive military operations have been conducted against the group that resulted in the killing of 56 jihadists, capture of 21 and surrender of 21 others.</s>MANILA, Philippines -- A German kidnapped by Somali pirates eight years ago might now be held captive by Islamic militants in the southern Philippines, the country's military said Monday after finding the man's yacht and a woman's body inside.

Abu Sayyaf spokesman Muamar Askali claimed that the militants kidnapped Jurgen Gustav Kantner and killed his female companion while the couple were cruising off neighboring Malaysia's Sabah state, said regional military spokesman Maj. Filemon Tan.

It's not clear why the woman was killed, but it's possible she may have fought back or tried to escape, Tan and another military official said.

Villagers reported finding a dead woman beside a shotgun on board a light blue yacht with the German flag and marked "Rockall," Tan said. The yacht was found off Laparan Island in Sulu province, an area where ransom-seeking militants have held many hostages in jungle camps.

Kantner, 69, and his wife were kidnapped off Somalia on board the Rockall in 2008 and later released by the Somali pirates, Tan said. Authorities did not know whether the woman kidnapped in Somalia was the same woman who was killed in the Philippines.

Troops took custody of the woman's body and the yacht Monday. Both were being examined by police investigators in Tawi-Tawi province near Sulu, the military's Western Mindanao Command said in a statement.

The military said the body was found "naked and had several contusions to the face and was possibly raped."

In Berlin, Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer said German authorities were working with their Philippine counterparts to learn what happened.

"We can and will confirm such reports ... only when German consular employees have really established without doubt, with their own eyes and ears or by other means, that they are correct," Schaefer said. "We're not there yet."

Abu Sayyaf, which is blacklisted by the U.S. and the Philippines as a terrorist organization, holds more than a dozen foreign and local hostages.

Abu Sayyaf and allied gunmen have committed many attacks at sea despite efforts by the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia to jointly shore up security along their busy sea border. Indonesians and Malaysians have been kidnapped from tugboats and fishing boats in recent months.

Indonesia's Foreign Ministry confirmed receiving information about the separate kidnappings of two Indonesian skippers of vessels off Sabah over the weekend, saying it was in touch with Malaysian and Philippine government officials about the latest abductions.

Indonesia's government has urged Indonesian crewmen in Sabah to avoid sailing in the risky waters until security has improved, the ministry said.

The kidnappings have continued despite a military offensive against Abu Sayyaf, mainly in Sulu and the nearby island province of Basilan, involving more than 6,000 troops, navy gunboats and rocket-firing aircraft.

Without a known foreign source of funds, Abu Sayyaf has survived mostly on ransom kidnappings, extortion and other acts of banditry.

A confidential Philippine government threat assessment report seen by The Associated Press said the militants pocketed at least $7.3 million from ransom kidnappings in the first six months of the year and have turned to abductions of foreign tugboat crewmen as military offensives restrict their mobility.

Anticipating that Abu Sayyaf may soon demand ransom for the German, Tan appealed for people to follow the Philippine government's no-ransom policy.

"If we give in to ransom, a greater damage will be done. They can use the money to buy arms and to feed their bandits, and that will fuel again the tendency for them to kidnap," Tan said. "It becomes a lucrative business."

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who took office June 30, has ordered troops to destroy Abu Sayyaf and has ruled out the possibility of any peace talks with the group. He has pursued talks with two other, larger Muslim insurgent groups.

The government report said Abu Sayyaf had 481 fighters with 438 firearms in the first half of the year, but the military reported last week that it had killed 70 of the militants and captured 32 others since July in Basilan and Sulu, a predominantly Muslim province about 590 miles south of Manila.

Information for this article was contributed by Geir Moulson of The Associated Press.</s>MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippine military is trying to verify a claim by Abu Sayyaf militants that they have kidnapped a German man from a yacht and shot and killed his girlfriend.

Regional military spokesman Maj. Filemon Tan said Monday that Abu Sayyaf spokesman Muamar Askali had claimed the militants kidnapped Juegen Kantner and killed his companion while the couple were cruising off neighboring Malaysia.

Tan says it’s not clear why the woman was killed but it’s possible she may have fought back or tried to escape.

Tan says villagers reported finding a dead woman lying beside a shotgun on board a yacht with the German flag off southern Sulu province, where the militants take their hostages.

Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>ON or before he retires from the service next month, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff Gen. Ricardo Visaya wants the terrorist Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) totally decimated, a military official said on Tuesday.

Visaya said he is optimistic that the military will beat his self-imposed deadline on December 8, when he reaches the mandatory retirement age of 56, according to Col. Edgard Arevalo, chief of the AFP Public Affairs Office.

“He is personally monitoring the developments, he is receiving briefings as regards the development on the ground and he is still optimistic that he will be able to beat the [deadline], he will be able to complete what he wanted to do before the end of his term,” Arevalo said.

During the 3rd Quarter Command Conference at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City last month, Visaya ordered the 125,000-strong military to use all available war materiel to finish off the Abu Sayyaf.

“Let us use all available tools of war in inflicting not just physical destruction but also in rendering a psychological blow against the ASG. Ensure their isolation from their local support system and make the communities resilient against the influence of terrorists,” he told military commanders.

Since July this year when government forces started an all-out offensive against ASG strongholds in Sulu and Basilan, Arevalo said the military inflicted serious blow against the extremist group.

“[We should not only look at the decimation of the Abu Sayyaf but also at our gains particularly at the support of our people that explains the surrender of a number of ASG members with their firearms],” he noted.

 From July to October 30, Arevalo said there were at least 70 jihadists killed in Sulu and Basilan.

The all-out offensive also resulted in the wounding of 22 ASG members and the capture of 32 others.

 A total of 34 Abu Sayyaf bandits also surrendered to authorities during this period.

On the government side, 15 soldiers were killed while 28 others were wounded in action.</s>MANILA: Islamic militants who specialize in kidnappings-for-ransom have reported killing a German sailor and abducting her elderly male companion from their yacht in waters off the southern Philippines, the military said Monday.

A commander from the Abu Sayyaf group, which has earnt many millions of dollars by kidnapping foreigners and beheaded others after ransoms demands were not met, claimed responsibility for the latest incidents, regional military spokesman Filemon Tan told Agence France-Presse.

Tan said the military had recovered the couple’s yacht, and the body of a naked white woman who had been shot was aboard.

He said the military had listened to an audio recording of a known Abu Sayyaf leader claiming responsibility for the raid on the yacht, and the abducted German man also spoke on the phone call.

The abducted man identified himself as Jurgen Kantner, aged 70, and his companion as Sabine, according to Tan.

It appeared the victims were the same as those abducted by Somali pirates off the Gulf of Aden and held hostage for 52 days in 2008.

Agence France-Presse interviewed Kantner and his wife, Sabine Merz, in 2009 about their ordeal when they returned to Somalia to retrieve their boat, named the Rockall.

Despite being subjected to a mock execution during his ordeal, Kantner said the threat of kidnapping would never stop him from sailing.

“My boat is my life and I don’t want to lose her, nothing more. I don’t care about pirates and governments,” Kantner said in the 2009 interview from Berbera, the main port in Somaliland.

The Philippine military released a photo on Monday of the Rockall and said it had a German flag on it.

Tan said the passports of Kantner and Merz were found on the Rockall. He said the photo in Merz’s passport appeared to match the body of the dead woman aboard, although her identity still needed to be confirmed.

The Abu Sayyaf, a loose network of militants based on remote southern islands in the southern Philippines, has defied more than a decade of US-backed military offensives against it and gone a lucrative kidnapping spree in recent years.

In 2014, the militants abducted another German couple off a yacht in the southern Philippines. They released the pair six months later after receiving what they said was the full ransom demand of 250 million pesos ($5.1 million).

Islamic militants are planning to kidnap foreigners in tourist hotspots of the central Philippines, roughly 500 kilometers (300 miles) from the Abu Sayyaf’s bases, the US government warned last week. AFP
The armed group Abu Sayyaf kidnaps a German national and murders his female companion off the coast of Mindanao in the Philippines.