Abu Sayyaf threatens to kill 2 Germans over ransom, airstrikes

An al-Qaida-linked terror group has threatened to kill two German hostages it kidnapped in the Philippines unless Germany pays a ransom of USD 5.6 million and halts its support to US-led airstrikes against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
Abu Sayyaf group set the deadline of October 10 to meet the demands including a ransom of USD 5.6 million (250 million pesos) in a letter sent to the families of the two hostages, the German and Filipino government in lieu of the safe release of the Germans who were kidnapped during a yachting holiday off the Palawan Island in April.

The threatening letter by one Abu Rami was also posted yesterday on a website - World Analysis, an open source information resource for geopolitical events - which showed three photos of the two Germans, doctor Stefan Viktor Okonek, 71 and his companion Henriete Dielen, 55.
The threat came just a few days after IS asked its supporters to kill Westerners whose nations have joined the US-led global coalition of more than 50 nations to fight the militant group which has gained control over a large part of Syria and Iraq, and proclaimed a Caliphate.
In Algeria, Jund al-Khilifa, a jihadist group linked to IS yesterday claimed to have beheaded a Frenchman, Herve Gourdel, 55, in a video posted online after France rejected its demand to halt strikes in Iraq. He was abducted last Sunday.

The German government, meanwhile, has said it will stick to its current strategy in the fight against the IS and has no intention to change it despite the threat by Abu Sayyaf to eliminate the two German hostages.
Germany's foreign ministry in Berlin has said a crisis management team is working on various possibilities to secure the safe release of the hostages.
Founded in the early 1990s and listed as a terrorist organisation since 1997, Southern Philippines-based Abu Sayyaf group started kidnapping foreigners in the early 2000s.