US confirms marine missing after hostage-taking claim

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.

The announcement was made after Al-Jazeera television broadcast a videotape purportedly of a Marine taken hostage by a militant group which threatened to kill him if the US military did not release all prisoners in Iraq.

The tape showed a moustached man wearing a blindfold and displayed a Marine identification card in the name of Wassef Ali Hassoun. Al-Jazeera said he was of Pakistani origin.

In the statement, the military said a corporal by that name had been missing from his unit in the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force since June 21. The statement said Hassoun was of Lebanese descent.

“Contrary to press reports, however, Naval Criminal Investigative Services cannot confirm that Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun has been taken hostage,” the statement said. “Various press reports the morning of June 28 stated that Hassoun, who is of Lebanese decent, had been taken hostage."