"Horn was shot by one of his guards when he tried to escape from the Abu Sayyaf during this morning's gunfight," said Brigadier General Divino Rey Pabayo in a statement. The southern Philippines is home to numerous armed groups, several of which are linked to the decades-old insurgency aiming to create a Muslim homeland in the Christian majority nation's deep south. Abu Sayyaf was active in the Philippines years before linking up with Islamic State, and has supported its violent activities with kidnapping. Abu Sayyaf beheaded German hostage Jurgen Kantner, 70, in 2017 after its demands for a roughly $600,000 ransom were not met. Two Canadian hostages kidnapped from yachts moored at a marina on a tourist island in the southern Philippines were also beheaded in 2016 after demands for ransoms of similar amounts went unfulfilled.

Source: Bangkok Post May 31, 2019 09:11 UTC