Fate of kidnapped US marine unclear

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.

The statement left open the possibility that the Marine, who is of Lebanese origin, was killed by another group or that he was still alive.

A Lebanese foreign ministry official in Beirut said Hassoun was believed to be dead and that Lebanese officials in Iraq were trying to track down his body.

Lebanon’s chief of mission in Baghdad “is trying to confirm the killing 100%, but it seems to be over”, the foreign ministry official told the Associated Press news agency.

”We understand that he was slaughtered. God help him.”

Later, however, Lebanese foreign minister Jean Obeid said news of the death “was not official”. The US military in Baghdad said it had no confirmation of Hassoun’s death and repeated that his status remains “captured”.

In Lebanon, Hassoun’s brother Sami said: “We have no information at all. All that we are doing now is looking at the internet and watching television stations. We don’t know anything more.”

The report of Hassoun’s murder came in a message posted on several Islamic web sites today in the name of the Ansar al-Sunna Army in Qaim, a city on the Iraqi border with Syria.

The message promised a video would be released soon showing the killing but none has emerged.

That name was different from the one used in the original claim last week that Hassoun had been kidnapped.

The Ansar al-Sunna Army – a group that has claimed responsibility for past suicide bombings – said on its official web site that it was not behind the statement.

“In order to maintain our credibility in all issues we declare that this statement that was attributed to us has no basis of truth,” it said. “Any statement that is not issued through our site doesn’t represent us.”

The original report of Hassoun’s kidnapping came on June 27, when the Arab television station Al-Jazeera broadcast a videotape showing him blindfolded, along with a statement from militants threatening to kill him unless the United States released all Iraqis in “occupation jails”.