Four gunmen were killed in Bohol as government forces pursued remnants of an Islamic militant group behind a foiled mass kidnapping attempt there, authorities said on Sunday. The government said the dead suspects were stragglers from a boatload of southern Philippines-based Abu Sayyaf gunmen who sailed to the central island of Bohol early this month as part of a plot to kidnap tourists. The raid had signalled an escalation of the kidnapping threat from the Abu Sayyaf, who are based on remote islands and also blamed for beheadings and deadly bombings. Six other Abu Sayyaf members had been killed in earlier clashes on the island on April 11, when three soldiers and a policeman were also slain, the authorities said. The Abu Sayyaf, made up of several hundred Filipino Muslim militants, is notorious for kidnappings, beheadings and deadly bombings.

Source: Manila Times April 23, 2017 16:30 UTC