Marine disappearance 'could be hoax'

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

The US Embassy in Tripoli, Lebanon, said today it had “credible information” that Marine Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun was in his native Lebanon.

NBC TV reported that the US Navy was investigating if Hassoun’s disappearance may be part of a kidnapping hoax.

Marine spokesman Major Nat Fahy said the Navy investigation was continuing.

“It would be fair to say they’re not ruling that out,” he said, adding that the inquiry was being treated as a missing person investigation.

There have been several contradictory reports about the fate of Hassoun since he went missing in Iraq more than two weeks ago.

An Iraqi militant group said on Monday it was holding the Lebanese-born Muslim in a safe place but had not killed him after he had promised not to return to the US military.

Qatar’s Al-Jazeera satellite television broadcast the statement from the “Islamic Response Movement,” which claimed responsibility on June 27 for Hassoun’s kidnapping.

Elizabeth Wharton, public affairs officer at the US Embassy in Beirut, said it could not confirm the information that it had received about the fate of 24-year-old Hassoun.

“We have credible information that he is in the country and safe but we’ve not been able to confirm it and we’re working on confirmation of that,” Wharton said.

US military officials have said Hassoun disappeared on June 20 from Iraq on “unauthorised leave”, but changed his status to “captured” after he turned up on television blindfolded with a sword hanging over his head.

On Saturday, a statement posted on a website known for extremist Muslim comment said the marine had been beheaded.

A day later, another web statement declared the marine had not been killed.

A Lebanese Foreign Ministry official said Hassoun “is with his parents” in northern Lebanon.

But journalists gathered outside the family’s home in the port city of Tripoli saw no sign of Hassoun’s reunion with his relatives.

Hassoun’s elder brother, Sami, refused to confirm or deny the information.

For Hassoun to make his way to Lebanon, about 500 miles away, he would have had to travel by land through Syria, which borders Iraq’s western Anbar province, where Hassoun’s unit, the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, is based. Hassoun worked as a translator.