Turkish hostages freed as US soldier reported dead

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

The killing of Spc Keith M. Maupin, 20, was reported by Arab television, which aired a videotape showing a blindfolded man identified by his captors as Maupin.

Al-Jazeera said in the next scene, gunmen shoot the man in the head, in front of a hole dug in the ground. The station did not broadcast the killing.

The US military said it could not confirm whether the man in the videotape was Maupin. The tape is being analysed by the Defence Department.

Meanwhile, the father of a US Marine who was reported kidnapped by militants issued a plea for his release. Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun’s captors have threatened to behead him.

The three Turks also were threatened with beheading. But the Turkish government said yesterday they had been freed.

“Our citizens have been released,” Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said. “We’ve struggled a lot for their release.”

Al-Jazeera broadcast a tape showing the Turkish hostages, believed to be contractors, kneeling in front of three militants as one read a statement.

“For the sake of you, our brothers, and Muslims of the people of Turkey ... we will release these hostages and send them safely home,” the statement said.

The abduction of the Turks was claimed by Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, whose followers killed American Nicholas Berg last month and South Korean Kim Sun-Il last week.

Al-Jazeera said Maupin’s captors issued a statement along with their video calling themselves “The Sharp Sword against the Enemies of God and His Prophet”.

The militants said they killed the soldier because the US did not change its policies in Iraq and to avenge “martyrs” in Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Algeria.

Maupin disappeared after an ambush on a convoy near Baghdad on April 9. &He appeared days later in a video. There had been no word on his fate since.

His abduction came amid a wave of kidnappings in which dozens of foreigners were snatched. Most were freed, though an Italian and a Lebanese man were killed. The abductions have taken a grisly turn with the recent kidnapping and subsequent beheadings of Berg and the South Korean.

Hassoun, a US Marine of Lebanese descent, was shown blindfolded, with a sword brandished over his head in a tape aired on Sunday on Al-Jazeera. His captors threatened to behead him unless Iraqis “in occupation jails” are freed. They did not set a timeframe.

“I appeal to the kidnappers and to their conscience and faith to release my son,” his father, Ali Hassoun, said. “He is not a fighter. I hope they will respond favourably to my appeal. May God reward them,” he said.

The US military said Hassoun, 24, was last seen on June 19 and did not report for duty the next day.

Hassoun had gone “on an unauthorised absence”, said Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the coalition deputy operations chief in Baghdad.

The Turkish news agency Ilhas reported on Monday two other Turks missing since June 1 had been kidnapped, and produced photos of the men in custody.