Vietnam reacts to reports that two crew members were brutally murdered by Abu Sayyaf.

This afternoon, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Le Thi Thu Hang stated Vietnam's reaction to the information that two Vietnamese crew members were brutally murdered by Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines.

The spokesperson said that, regarding press reports about two Vietnamese crew members being murdered by the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group, the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Vietnamese Embassy in the Philippines have requested Philippine authorities to verify the information and provide necessary assistance as soon as possible.

"Vietnam strongly condemns all acts of kidnapping and brutal, inhumane murder and believes that these acts must be punished appropriately," Ms. Hang emphasized.

Earlier, international media, citing a statement from the Philippine military, reported that the two crew members had been brutally murdered, and their bodies were found off Basilan Island in southern the Philippines on July 5.

Two crew members, believed to be Vietnamese, have been held hostage for the past eight months.

Basilan is a base of operations for Abu Sayyaf. Abu Sayyaf was formed in the 1990s and operates with funding from Osama Bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist network.

According to Vietnamnet.vn