LIBYA on Friday condemned the militant activities of the Philippines Muslim insurgent Abu Sayyaf guerrillas — who last held South African couple Monique and Carel Strydom hostage — and said they must be “crushed.” Salem Adam, Libya’s ambassador to Manila described the Abu Sayyaf as a group of bandits and ruled out any further negotiations with them. “We have no solution but to crush them. Abu Sayyaf is a bandit group. They are doing nothing but kidnapping and asking ransom and murder. “They are using Islam as an umbrella,” he said. Salem was in Malaysia to witness the “initialising” of a peace accord between rival factions — the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Indonesia, Libya and Malaysia, all members of the Organisation of Islamic Conference, brokered the peace deal. The Abu Sayyaf rebels, self-styled Islamic separatists, beheaded four hostages out of a fresh batch of at least 21 Filipinos abducted in a midnight raid in the southern Philippines, police said Friday. They were already holding two American and 19 Filipino hostages. – AFP