Marine disappearance probed

2004-07-09 20:11

Baghdad - The US military said on Friday it was investigating what happened to a Lebanese-born marine who went missing in Iraq and was once feared to have been beheaded by his captors before resurfacing safely.

The state department announced late on Thursday that Marine Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun, 24, was at the US embassy in Beirut after making contact with US authorities to arrange a time to meet earlier in the day.

Hassoun was last seen on June 19 at a US military camp outside the insurgent bastion of Fallujah, west of Baghdad, and was reported missing a day later, the military said.

Following an initial inquiry, Hassoun was listed as a deserter but his status was changed to captured after a video was broadcast a week later showing a marine being held hostage by masked gunmen, the military said.

"The circumstances regarding his whereabouts between 19 June and 8 July are under investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service."

On Monday, a statement attributed to the Islamic Retaliation Movement - Armed Resistance Wing and read on Al-Jazeera television said Hassoun was safe and had been released. Another armed group on Saturday had made a subsequently discredited statement that he had been beheaded.

His presumed captors had said the marine had been set free because he had promised to take off his uniform. "Hassoun promised not to go back to the US army," their statement said.

Born in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli before emigrating to the United States, Hassoun, who is married and has no children, had served as an interpreter.

- AFP