Allahu akhbar?
It is unprecedented.
As the article says, political violence is quite common, assassinations and such are certainly not rare. Politicians, journalists, and politically-involved people (fixers, gangsters, activists, etc.) are all more or less playing in a dangerous game. But there are limits to this. Murders are done cleanly. Families and innocents are not targets, and if hit its inadvertent. There are unwritten rules.
The participants in the various recent wars, the Muslims (MNLF, MILF) and communists, military and militias, have also generally tried to play clean. The targets are participants and interested parties, fighters, soldiers, officials, suspects, etc., the targets were specific.
Again, usually innocents were not included. And where they were - grenades in public markets and the like - it was occasional and impersonal. People have been killed in the course of torture also, but again, this was an occasional thing and the victims were involved parties. All sides were careful of public opinion. There are rules.
The big exception was Abu Sayyaf. This was the first mass-murdering outfit on the scene with no limits. Deliberate cruelty and the deliberate massacre of innocents was something they brought in. When I first heard of this I first thought of Abu Sayyaf.
The really strange thing about this is that it isn’t Abu Sayyaf. This is new, and very horrible. Head-chopping with chainsaws is beyond even Abu Sayyaf. And the fact that its all about the usual local politics, patronage, etc. is extremely odd. I can see a murder or two in the course of such a dispute. But this ? Its like something from Africa or Saddam Hussein.