Islamic militants in Philippines release 'barbaric' footage of the beheading of Canadian tourist John Ridsdel after ransom demands for $6.5million were not met
Footage emerges purporting to show the beheading of John Ridsdel, 68
It shows him surrounded by four men before a knife is used to kill him
The Canadian was kidnapped in the Philippines in September last year
He was killed last month after Abu Sayyaf's ransom demands were not met
DAILY MAIL
PUBLISHED: 16:09 GMT, 3 May 2016 | UPDATED: 07:54 GMT, 4 May 2016
Islamic militant group Abu Sayyaf has released 'barbaric' footage showing the beheading ofCanadian John Ridsdel, it is claimed.
The grainy footage purports to show the moment the 68-year-old was thrown to the ground and killed while being held captive deep in the Philippine jungle.
Mr Ridsdel had been taken hostage by the group - which is fighting for the creation of an independent Islamic state - from a marina in the country's south on September 21, 2015.
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A screenshot taken from the beheading video shows Mr Ridsdel sitting while his captors stand around him. The 68-year-old, from Calgary, was killed late last month after the group's ransom demands were not met
After the Canadian government failed to meet his captors' ransom demands, two men on a motorcycle left his head, placed inside a plastic bag, along a street in Jolo town in Sulu province and then fled.
Rita Katz, the director of the SITE Intelligence Group, said the new footage was 'brutal, barbaric, extremely graphic, and most disturbing'.
MailOnline has seen the footage and it is too graphic to publish. It has not been independently verified.
The Abu Sayyaf militants had threatened to behead one of three men - Mr Ridsdell, another Canadian and a Norwegian - they kidnapped last September from a marina on southern Samal Island if a large ransom was not paid by 3pm on April 25.
Jolo Mayor Hussin Amin condemned the beheading, blaming Abu Sayyaf militants, who have been implicated in past kidnappings, beheadings and bombings.
'This is such a barbaric act by these people and one would be tempted to think that they should also meet the same fate,' Amin said.
Philippine forces were moving to rescue the abductees, also including a Filipino woman who was kidnapped with them, as the Abu Sayyaf's deadline for the ransom payment lapsed, the military said.
The militants reportedly demanded 300 million pesos (the equivalent of $6.5 million USD) for each of the foreigners, a reduction from their earlier demands.
The hostages were believed to have been taken to Jolo Island in Sulu, a jungled province where the militants are thought to be holding a number of captives, including 14 Indonesian and four Malaysian crewmen who were abducted at gunpoint from three tugboats starting last month.
Hostages plead for their lives in Abu Sayyaf ransom video
Abu Sayyaf militants had threatened to behead one of three men - two Canadians and a Norwegian - if a ransom was not paid by 3pm Monday. Mr Ridsdell is pictured second from right
About 400 Abu Sayyaf militants are believed to have been involved in the kidnappings.
In militant videos posted online, Mr Ridsdel and fellow Canadian Robert Hall, Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad and Filipino Marites Flor were shown sitting in a clearing with heavily armed militants standing behind them.
In some of the videos, a militant positioned a long knife on Mr Ridsdel's neck. Two black flags hung in the backdrop of lush foliage.
The abductions highlight the long-running security problems hounding the southern Philippines, a region with bountiful resources that also suffers from poverty, lawlessness and decades-long Muslim and communist insurgencies.
The Abu Sayyaf began a series of large-scale abductions after it emerged in the early 1990s as an offshoot of a separatist rebellion by minority Muslims in the predominantly Roman Catholic nation's south.
It has been weakened by more than a decade of Philippine offensives but has endured largely as a result of large ransom and extortion earnings.
The U.S. and the Philippines have both listed the group as a terrorist organization.
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Two men on a motorcycle left Ridsdel's head, placed inside a plastic bag, along a street in Jolo town in Sulu province and then fled, Jolo police said. Above, the location of Jolo is illustrated
Militants threaten Canadian and Norwegian hostages in video
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3571618/Islamic-militants-Philippines-release-barbaric-footage-beheading-Canadian-tourist-John-Ridsdel-ransom-demands-6-5million-not-met.html#ixzz47hzQuq4M
BESTFBKL: We saw the video it was simply too gruesome to put on here, the way the Abu Sayyaf militant beheaded Ridsdel. Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines must do a joint operation to capture these Abu Sayyaf militants. They are just a bunch of militants making money from kidnappings
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