Lebanese confirm death of captured marine

Lebanese confirm death of captured marine

By Alistair Lyon, in Baghdad

July 5, 2004



Lebanese Foreign Ministry sources say they can confirm the death of a US marine whom Islamic militants said they had beheaded.

There was no immediate confirmation from the US military. "We don't have anything and the marines don't have anything," a military spokesman said.

Lebanon's consul in Baghdad, Hassan Hijazi, told the ministry on Saturday that Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun, an American of Lebanese origin, had been killed, the Foreign Ministry sources said.

Mr Hijazi did not know when the killing took place and the sources did not explain how he had confirmed the death of Corporal Hassoun, who has been missing for a fortnight.

It was the second reported killing of a captured US soldier in Iraq in a week.

The Army of Ansar al-Sunna, in statements posted on the internet on Saturday, said it had decapitated Corporal Hassoun.

The Arabic-language statement demanded that the US President, George Bush, withdraw troops from Iraq and said it was holding another "infidel" hostage.

Hours after last week's handover of sovereignty to Iraq, the Arabic news channel Al-Jazeera broadcast a video tape showing what militants said was the killing of a US soldier, Private Keith Matthew Maupin, 20. His death has not been confirmed.

The Sydney Morning Herald.