Muslim guerrillas in the Philippines have beheaded two Christian preachers in a grisly response to government claims that the rebels were on the run and almost defeated.
Officials said the heads of the two were found wrapped in plastic in a market in the main town of Patikul on southern Jolo island, two days after the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas seized them and six other hostages.
"This is what will happen to those who do not believe in Allah," said a note found near one of the heads of the preachers.
The army reacted by pounding suspected rebel lairs near Patikul with rockets and cannon yesterday.
"This is a barbaric act by a barbaric group trying to propagate their religion," Jolo army commander Brigadier Romeo Tolentino said.
The kidnappings and brutal beheadings were the the first carried out by the Abu Sayyaf since US special forces concluded a six-month counter-terrorism exercise in the southern Philippines designed to help local troops defeat the country's most radical Muslim group.
It also happened just weeks after Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo claimed victory over the Abu Sayyaf, saying the military had substantially reduced the group's capabilities and strengths.
Arroyo made the claim after a gunbattle between soldiers and the guerrillas in the Zamboanga peninsula in which senior Abu Sayyaf leader Abu Sabaya was believed killed.
Authorities had believed the hostages were cosmetics sales agents, but military commander Tolentino said they had been wrongly identified and were Jehovah's Witnesses. He also said the hostages, all local residents, included four women, and not five.
Two other hostages -- both Muslims -- were earlier freed, but the four women were still in captivity, he added.
One of the heads was found by residents in a fruit stall at a public market and the other on a dirt road leading to military headquarters on southern Jolo.
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