Philippine soldiers rescued a British couple from Islamic State-linked jihadists nearly two months after the couple was kidnapped from a beach resort. WESMINCOM/afp
A British man and his wife rescued this week from Islamist captors in the Philippines’ south said they were chained and threatened with beheading if a ransom was not delivered.
The couple, shaken but unharmed, shared the details of their nearly two-month ordeal with reporters after escaping during a gunfight on Monday between Philippine troops and the Islamic State (IS)-linked Abu Sayyaf group.
The husband, named by British authorities as Alan Hyrons, painted a “very humiliating and degrading” life in captivity, with little to eat in a haze of constant fear.
“They chained our legs . . . It was very difficult, but we endured because we believe in God. One of them treated us well, but then he told me he would be the one assigned to cut off my head if the money does not arrive on time,” wife Wilma Hyrons said.
Armed men abducted the couple on October 4 at the beach resort they run on the southern island of Mindanao, which makes up the southern third of the Philippines.
They were taken to Jolo Island, which is the stronghold of the kidnap-for-ransom gang Abu Sayyaf, which has carried out some of the Philippines’ worst attacks.
“We tried to scream but no one came because they have the guns,” the wife, who has Philippine origins, said.
She said the men pointed guns at her face, ordering her to call her brother so he would sell all their assets to raise funds for their ransom.
Their chance for escape came after several days of gunfights between the Philippine military and the kidnappers, which saw at least five of the gunmen killed.
“It’s something you see in films and you take it to be a film. But in real life it’s terrifying,” the husband said, describing the final gun battle.
“There were only 10 of them when we escaped . . . It was the commander who got hit first so I told Alan: ‘Let us run. We should not wait here to be killed,’” the wife added.
Muslim separatists have led a decades-long insurgency in the south of the Philippines,resulting in the death of tens of thousands of people.
While the government has negotiated peace with the largest group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, hard-line factions allied with the IS group are not part of the accord.
Abu Sayyaf has previously kidnapped foreign missionaries, businessmen, Western tourists and merchant seamen.
Dutch birdwatcher Ewold Horn, who was kidnapped in 2012 in the southern Philippines, was killed in May during a gunfight between his Abu Sayyaf captors and the Philippine military.
