Philippine militants that want to ally with Islamic State jihadists have beheaded two local hostages, police said Wednesday.
Police on the southern island of Mindanao recovered the decapitated corpses of the two men on Tuesday, nine days after they were taken, said the police chief of Lanao del Sur province.
"Salvador Hanobas and Jemark Hanobas were beheaded by their abductors," Senior Superintendent Rustom Duran told reporters by telephone. "Locals brought the heads and the torsos to the mayor's office."
It was unclear if the two victims were related.
Duran said the kidnappers belonged to an Islamic militant group that battled government forces for a week in February, leaving three soldiers dead and forcing 20,000 people to flee their homes.
Police found black flags identical to those flown by Islamic State jihadists in Iraq and Syria in the fighters' hideout in the remote Mindanao town of Butig.
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