Manila: A Norwegian kidnap-victim remained missing after government soldiers killed 11 Filipino-Muslim Islamists in a rescue operation in the southern Philippines, a spokesman said.
The government troops did not see Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad who was believed to be with the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) that lost 11 men during a clash with government soldiers in Makaita, Patikul, Sulu last Friday, Western Mindanao Command spokesman Maj. Filemon Tan Jr. said in a report that reached a military headquarters in suburban Quezon City.
Seventeen soldiers were injured in the firefight that lasted for 45-minutes, said Tan.
“We believe that Sekkingstad could be with this big group whose sub-leader Mohammad Saeed, also known as Ama Maas, was reportedly killed,” said Tan, adding, “We have no basis yet as to his fate. The Abu Sayyaf has not also declared they have executed him.”
Said was one of the abductors of Sekkingstad, Canadians John Ridsdel and Robert Hall, and Filipina Maritess Flor in a high-end resort on Samal Island off Davao City in September 2015.
The ASG beheaded Hall and Ridsdel last April and June respectively, and released Flor in late June.
“The military’s Joint Task Force Sulu (JTFS) has continued a pursuit operation,” said Tan, adding slightly wounded members of the task force “went back to the frontlines”.
President Rodrigo Duterte has warned that the ASG would be a very big security threat in the next decade.
The ASG has been blamed for high-profile kidnap-for ransom activities, beheadings, bombings, and other terror acts in the south and in Metro Manila since early 1990s. It has pledged allegiance to Daesh.
