A US marine who turned up in Beirut after being missing for 18 days from his base in Iraq was being flown to Germany today for debriefing and examination in a US military hospital.

A US Marine whose apparent kidnapping in Iraq was followed by conflicting claims – first that he was beheaded, then that he was alive – contacted US authorities and is now safe in his native Lebanon.

A US Marine reported missing in Iraq more than two weeks ago is alive and at the US Embassy in Beirut, where American officials are meeting with him.

Two people were killed today in a gunbattle between members of the clan of US marine Wassef Ali Hassoun and people who taunted them as being American collaborators, Lebanese security and hospital officials said.

A US marine who was reported missing in Iraq more than two weeks ago is alive and at the US Embassy in Beirut, where American officials are meeting with him, authorities said today.

A Lebanese-born US marine is now at the US Embassy in Beirut, the Pentagon has confirmed.

The disappearance of a US marine who was feared to have been kidnapped by extremists in Iraq could be a hoax.

The US has “credible information” that US marine Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun who went missing in Iraq is safe in his native Lebanon.

Fifteen members of one Iraqi family died when US forces dropped two tons of bombs on what they claimed was a militant safehouse in Fallujah.

US forces dropped two tons of bombs on what they claimed was a militant safehouse in Fallujah, killing at least 10 people.

At least 10 people were killed when US forces dropped two tons of bombs on a purported militant safehouse in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, officials said today.

The militant Shiite cleric whose uprising in April left hundreds dead pledged to resist “oppression and occupation” and called the new interim Iraqi government “illegitimate”.

The fate of kidnapped US Marine Wassef Ali Hassoun was unclear tonight after extremist group, the Ansar al-Sunna Army, denied it had issued a statement claiming to have beheaded the corporal.

An Iraqi militant group has confirmed on a website that it has beheaded a captive US marine.

IRAQI militants freed three Turkish hostages yesterday, as another group of kidnappers claimed to have executed a US soldier captured nearly three months ago.

Iraqi militants shot dead an American soldier they have held hostage for nearly three months, saying he was killed because the US government did not change its policy in Iraq, Al-Jazeera television said today.

INSURGENTS threatened to behead a kidnapped US Marine and a Pakistani driver unless the Americans release all Iraqis in “occupation jails,” according to a videotape on Arab television.

The family of a US marine taken hostage in Iraq and threatened with beheading has asked people around the world to pray for his safe return.

A US Marine has been missing from his unit in Iraq for nearly a week but it is unclear whether the man has been taken hostage, the US command said today.