This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A Dutch birdwatcher held by Islamic State-linked militants was killed on Friday during a firefight between his kidnappers and soldiers in the southern Philippines, according to the military, which said he was shot by his captors as he tried to escape.

Ewold Horn, held hostage since 2012 by Abu Sayyaf, was fatally wounded as soldiers fought a 90-minute gun battle with the jihadists in Sulu province on their stronghold, Jolo island.

The Dutch foreign ministry confirmed Horn died in an “exchange of fire”, adding it was investigating the exact circumstances of his death.

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Brig Gen Divino Rey Pabayo, of the Philippine army, said in a statement that “Horn was shot by one of his guards when he tried to escape from the Abu Sayyaf during this morning’s gunfight”.

The military’s account could not be independently confirmed.

The southern Philippines is home to numerous armed groups, several of which are linked to the decades-old insurgency aiming to create a Muslim homeland in the mainly Christian south.

Horn was on an expedition to photograph rare birds on the remote Tawi-Tawi island group, in the southern Philippines, when he was abducted by unknown gunmen and handed over to the Abu Sayyaf.

He was seized along with Lorenzo Vinciguerra, a Swiss national who managed to escape in 2014 during a gun battle between soldiers and his captors.

“We express our deep condolences to Mr Horn’s family and loved ones,” the Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s spokesman, Salvador Panelo, said in a statement.

“We vow to pursue his killers to the ends of the earth until they are brought to justice.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Soldiers carrying bodies to a military helicopter in Sulu, in the Philippines, on 31 May 2019 after an operation in which Ewold Horn was killed. Photograph: Ho Handout/EPA

Abu Sayyaf has been blamed for some of the worst terrorist attacks in Philippine history, including repeated kidnappings of foreigners, who are often held for huge ransoms.

Philippine officials have said the group was behind the January bombing of a Catholic cathedral on Jolo island during Sunday mass, which killed 20 people and was the worst attack to hit the country in years.

The bombing was claimed by Isis, which has tried to maintain a presence in the Philippines as its caliphate crumbles in the Middle East.

Abu Sayyaf was active in the Philippines years before linking up with Isis, and has supported its violent activities through kidnapping and demanding big ransoms.

The group has held hostages over the course of years as it negotiated ransoms, but has also shown a willingness to kill its captives.

Abu Sayyaf beheaded the German hostage Jurgen Kantner, 70, in 2017 after its demands for a a ransom of about $600,000 were not met.

Two Canadian hostages, kidnapped from yachts moored at a marina on a tourist island in the southern Philippines, were also beheaded in 2016 after demands for ransoms went unfulfilled.

The military said on Friday the group was believed to hold at least two Filipinos and a Vietnamese national, but it could not be sure they were still alive.

It added a woman named Mingayan Sahiron, which the army identified as the second wife of a top Abu Sayyaf leader, was also killed in Friday’s gun battle.