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Manila, Philippines — There were exchanges of gunfire Tuesday as 2,000 Philippine soldiers and marines hunted for the Islamic extremists who beheaded Calgarian John Ridsdel in their southern jungle hideout on Monday. The group is still holding three other hostages that they had captured with Ridsdel last fall including a second Canadian, British Columbian Robert Hall.

“There will be no letup in the operation,” said the armed forces chief spokesman, Lt. Col. Noel Detoyato, in an interview about the mission. It was launched on Saturday by the Philippine military to try to rescue Ridsdel and the others seized with him last September from a resort in the southern province of Mindanao.

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“There are on-going operations as we speak. Our troops are still on the ground.”

[np_storybar title=”Matthew Fisher: John Ridsdel was an adventurer, but he was no cowboy” link=”http://news.nationalpost.com/news/world/matthew-fisher-john-ridsdel-was-an-adventurer-but-he-was-no-cowboy”]John was an adventurer who long ago gave up the comforts of life as a journalist in Saskatchewan and Alberta to work overseas for Petro-Canada. He had been an expatriate for more than 25 years when I came to know him in 2013 through his work as a mining executive for TVI Resources Inc. A Calgary-based company, it runs gold, silver, copper and zinc mines in an area of Mindanao where extremists have been seeking to create an Islamic state for decades.

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