Canadian hostages issue plea to halt strikes on Abu Sayyaf

In chilling video, captives from Canada and Norway beg the Philippines to halt strikes on Abu Sayyaf bases

MANILA - Four hostages abducted from a southern Philippine resort more than three weeks ago have resurfaced in a chilling video posted online late Tuesday, apparently by the Abu Sayyaf militant group.

Circled by heavily armed masked men flanked by the distinctive black-and-white flags of Islamic State, the hostages begged the Philippine military to halt recent strikes on Abu Sayyaf bases.

“Please stop all of these operations so that negotiations can start about their demands,” said Canadian hostage John Ridsdel , as one of the militants held a machete to his throat. Mr. Ridsdel was taken from the Holiday Ocean View Resort on Samal Island in Mindanao on Sept. 22, along with a second Canadian, a Filipino, and the resort’s Norwegian owner.

A Philippine military spokesman said on Wednesday that the military was considering its response. He didn’t confirm that the group in the video was Abu Sayyaf, although that is the only Islamic militant group in the country with a recent history of taking foreigners hostage.

Last year, the Philippine government signed a landmark peace deal with the country’s largest Islamic rebel group, but it continues to battle several smaller groups in the troubled south.

As a result, the southern island of Mindanao, home to some the Philippines’ poorest regions, still attracts relatively few foreign visitors, even though tourism is growing steadily in other parts of the country. Earlier this year, the U.S. State Department warned of the “high threat of kidnapping of international travelers and violence linked to insurgency and terrorism” in the Philippine south.

There were 48 kidnappings in the Philippines in 2014, according to the U.S. State Department, with most cases involving wealthy Filipinos seized by organized criminal gangs seeking ransom payments. But rebel groups also target foreigners on occasion as well.

Around 300 Abu Sayyaf militants scattered throughout the jungle on the islands of Jolo and Basilan hold at least five other foreign hostages from Malaysia, the Netherlands and South Korea, according to the military, as well as several Filipinos.

The military launched a string of attacks against Abu Sayyaf lairs following the August kidnapping of a local official–who was later found beheaded–and two Coast Guard personnel on the island of Jolo. The army said it killed 38 Abu Sayyaf gunmen during a successful raid to free the two hostages.

A year ago, the group freed two German hostages after a ransom was reportedly paid, and in December a Swiss hostage managed to escape his Abu Sayyaf captors by fleeing through the jungle.

While Abu Sayyaf was blamed for a bus bombing in the southern city of Zamboanga that killed an 11-year-old girl last month, the group is nowadays almost exclusively focused on kidnapping for ransom, according to Zachary Abuza, a professor at the National War College in the U.S.

Once an ideologically motivated Islamist organization, Abu Sayyaf is now little more than an extreme criminal gang, Mr. Abuza said. “The Islamic State flags [in the hostage video] were nothing more than publicity stunts,” he said, arguing that Abu Sayyaf has no real affiliation to the Middle East group, and no interest in political or religious causes.