Severed human head found in southern Philippines's Jolo island

A severed human head believed to be that of kidnapped Canadian male was found in Jolo, Sulu province in southern Philippines Monday night, military and police said Tuesday.

Police said the head was found placed inside a plastic bag, and was recovered around 9 p.m. near a Roman Catholic church in Jolo. The announcement came a few hours after the Abu Sayyaf militants claimed it beheaded Canadian Robert Hall, one of its captives.

"Initially, our personnel thought it was an explosive, but when the police team inspected the plastic bag, it turned out that it's a head of an old Caucasian man," police officer Junpikar Sittin, the chief of police of Jolo, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in a telephone interview.

"The discovery confirms the brutal beheading by the evil criminal Abu Sayyaf," the military said in a statement.

"The military will work relentless with our police counterparts to continue to find, neutralise or arrest and hold these criminals accountable for their crimes," the statement read.

Last April, the Abu Sayyaf group also beheaded Canadian national John Ridsdel. The victim's head was found near a police station inside the town hall premises also in Jolo.

Ridsdel, Hall, Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad and a Filipino woman were snatched in a posh holiday resort in Davao del Norte in Sept. 21 last year. The bandits demanded ransom money and threatened to kill them if their demands are not met. Endit