MANILA, April 23 (Xinhua) -- Abu Sayyaf militants had beheaded a Filipino soldier who was abducted Thursday, a military general said Sunday.
Brig. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana, commander of the Joint Task Force Sulu, said in a statement that troops found the body of Army Sergeant Anni Siraji in a remote village around 3 p.m. on Sunday.
The decomposed state of the body of the victim suggested that he had been beheaded for at least three days and his body was found some 2.5 km from where he was abducted, the general said, adding the severed head was found some 50 meters away from the decomposed body.
"They attempted to bring the head but they eventually left it behind. You can see that the beheading was hastily done maybe because they were running away from us."
Siraji is a member of the Tausug tribe, an ethnic group in southern Philippines. He was kidnapped on Thursday morning at the height of the military operations against the bandit group Abu Sayyaf in Patikul town in Sulu.
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