Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte demands extension for bloody drug war that has left 3,000 suspected pushers dead as he ‘cannot kill them all’

PHILIPPINE President Rodrigo Duterte has demanded a six-month extension for his war on drugs, saying there are so many people involved he "cannot kill them all".

Some 3,000 people have been slaughtered since Duterte won May elections in a landslide on a vow to kill tens of thousands of criminals in an unprecedented blitz to rid the country of illegal drugs in six months.

"I did not realise how severe and how serious the drug menace was in this republic until I became president," Duterte, 71, told reporters late Sunday in his southern home city of Davao.

Launching his crackdown was like letting "a worm out of the can" he said, adding that he wanted "a little extension of maybe another six months" to try and finish the job.

"Even if I wanted to I cannot kill them all because the last report would be this thick," he said, referring to a new police list of people including top officials suspected of being involved in the drugs trade.

Police say they have killed 1,105 drug suspects in the slightly more than two months since Duterte took office.

Another 2,035 have been murdered by unknown assailants, with human rights monitors saying these could be vigilantes, emboldened by Duterte's repeated calls for the public to help him kill criminals.

The crackdown has drawn severe criticism from the US, the EU parliament and the UN over what they say are extrajudicial killings.

Duterte has rejected the criticism, calling US President Barack Obama a "son of a whore" and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon a "fool", and vowing to continue his campaign - which is proving hugely popular domestically and boosting his poll ratings.

Duterte promised on the campaign trial that 100,000 people would be killed during his crackdown and so many bodies would be dumped in Manila Bay that fish would grow fat from feeding on them.

Days after his election win, Duterte also offered security officials bounties for the bodies of drug dealers, and has repeatedly pledged to protect police from prosecution over the killings.

He argued that these robust measures are necessary to prevent the country becoming a "narco-state".

Duterte was speaking at a news conference to announce the safe recovery of a Norwegian man, who had been held hostage for a year in the country's south by Islamic militants, who had beheaded two Canadian men captured at the same time.

'It's a beautiful feeling to be alive': Canadian held captive by Islamist militants in Philippine jungle describes terrifying near death experience

A NORWEGIAN man freed by militants after a year of jungle captivity in the southern Philippines described the ordeal Sunday as "devastating" and said he and fellow captives were "treated like slaves".

This week he was still carrying a backpack with a bullet hole as a reminder of a near-death experience that included the beheadings of the two Canadians kidnapped with him.

Kjartan Sekkingstad was freed by his Abu Sayyaf captors on Saturday to rebels from the larger Moro National Liberation Front, which has signed a peace deal with the Philippine government and helped negotiate his release.

On Sunday, he was handed over to Philippine authorities, along with three Indonesian fishermen freed separately by the Abu Sayyaf.

Aside from the horror of constantly being warned that he would be the next to be beheaded by the brutal extremists, Kjartan said he survived more than a dozen clashes between Philippine forces and his captors in the lush jungles of Sulu province.

In one intense battle, in which the forces fired from assault helicopters and from the ground, he said he felt a thud in his back and thought he was hit by gunfire. After the fighting eased, he discovered that he wasn't hit, and that his green, army-style backpack had been pierced by the gunfire instead.

Kjartan was carrying the damaged backpack when he walked to freedom Saturday somewhere in the thick jungle off Sulu's mountainous Patikul town.

On Sunday, the heavily bearded Kjartan, clad in a rebel camouflage uniform and muddy combat boots, was asked how he would describe his horrific experience.

"Devastating, devastating," he said, still clutching the backpack.

Philippine presidential adviser Jesus Dureza, who received Kjartan and the three freed Indonesians from Moro National Liberation Front rebel chief Nur Misuari in Misuari's rural stronghold near Sulu's Indanan town, accompanied the Norwegian on a flight to southern Davao city, where the ex-hostage met President Rodrigo Duterte.

Duterte told Kjartan that his travails were over. Kjartan, newly shaved but looking gaunt in a loose polo shirt, thanked all those who worked for his freedom.

"I am very happy to be alive and free," he said. "It's a beautiful feeling."

Kjartan was kidnapped from a yacht club he helped managed on southern Samal Island on September 21, 2015, along with Canadians John Ridsdel and Robert Hall and Hall's Filipino girlfriend, Marites Flor, sparking a massive land and sea search by Philippine forces.

The Abu Sayyaf demanded a huge ransom for the release of the foreigners, and released videos in which they threatened the captives in a jungle clearing where they displayed Islamic State group-style black flags.

Ridsdel was beheaded in April and Hall was decapitated in June after ransom deadlines lapsed. When Flor was freed in June, she recounted in horror how the militants rejoiced while watching the beheadings.

Kjartan said he and his fellow captives were forced to carry the militants' belongings and were kept in the dark on what was happening around them. At one point, he said, their heavily armed captors numbered more than 300.

"We were treated like slaves," he said.

After the militants decapitated Ridsdel, Kjartan was threatened by the militants, who repeatedly told him, "You're next."

When the negotiations for his release began in recent months, Kjartan said the rebels began treating him better.

It was not immediately clear whether Kjartan had been ransomed off. Duterte suggested at a news conference last month that 50 million pesos (£800,000) had been paid to the militants, but that they continued to hold on to him.

The military said Saturday that relentless assaults forced the extremists to release the hostage.

Philippine forces launched a major offensive against the Abu Sayyaf after the beheadings of the Canadians sparked condemnations from then-Philippine President Benigno Aquino III and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who called on other nations not to pay ransoms if their citizens are abducted to discourage the militants from carrying out more kidnappings.

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