Abu Sayyaf Militants Behead Hostage, Philippine Forces Say

MANILA — The Philippine militant group Abu Sayyaf has beheaded a Filipino hostage, the country’s armed forces announced Monday, just days after a clash in the central Philippines left five militants and four members of the security forces dead.

The military identified the victim as Noel Besconde, a fisherman seized by Abu Sayyaf in December.

He was killed on Thursday in the southern Philippines, about 48 hours after Abu Sayyaf gunmen fought with government forces on the popular tourist island of Bohol, in the country’s midsection. The authorities suspected that the militants had been looking for hostages to hold for ransom.

Abu Sayyaf was once affiliated with Al Qaeda and has since declared allegiance to the Islamic State, the Philippine authorities have said, although it is now believed to operate primarily as a profit-driven criminal enterprise.

Mr. Besconde was seized four months ago in the Celebes Sea and was taken hostage by an Abu Sayyaf commander, whom the military identified only as Sadjawaan.

Brig. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana, the head of the military task force on the southern island of Sulu, where Mr. Besconde apparently died, said the military believed he was killed because he was ill and “impedes their movement to evade the operating units that are hunting them.”

The military had said earlier that the gunmen sought a ransom equal to about $62,000, an amount that was unrealistic because his family was poor.

Abu Sayyaf has “no place in our civilized society,” said Gen. Eduardo Año, the commander of the armed forces.

In February, the group beheaded Jürgen Kantner, 70, a yachtsman from Germany, after his government did not pay a $600,000 ransom. He was taken in November as he sailed in the southern Philippines with his partner, a woman who was believed to have been fatally shot during the kidnapping.

Last year, Abu Sayyaf beheadedtwo Canadian hostages they had seized from a beach resort on Samal Island, also in the south.

The group operates and recruits in mostly poor areas on the southern islands of Basilan and Sulu. It is thought to have a few hundred members, but it has evaded a military crackdown and remains a serious threat.

The militants are believed to hold as