Freed US marine 'back home'
2004-07-08 11:38
Beirutt - The US embassy said on Thursday it believed a Lebanese-born US marine missing in Iraq last month and once feared beheaded by Islamist captors was now back in Lebanon, although he was keeping out of sight.
"There is credible information that he is in the country and safe," an embassy spokesperson said.
"The embassy is working at confirming this information. There is no confirmation of his location whatsoever and he is not at the embassy," the spokesperson said.
Lebanese Foreign Minister Jean Obeid telephoned the family in the northern city of Tripoli to congratulate them on the release of Wassef Ali Hassoun, 24, but the ministry gave no information on how or when the release took place.
The family, meanwhile, declined to comment on the marine's current whereabouts.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Wednesday that Washington had received unconfirmed reports about Corporal Hassoun's fate, including that he had made contact with several individuals and might be in Lebanon.
The Lebanese foreign ministry had said already on Tuesday that its embassy in Iraq had informed Beirut the marine "was in a safe place," but gave no further details.
Wassef's brother Sami Hassoun, who lives in Tripoli, said at the time that his family had received a call that Wassef was alive and had been freed.
On Monday, a statement attributed to the Islamic Retaliation Movement Armed Resistance Wing and read on Al-Jazeera television said Hassoun who served as an interpreter was safe and had been released.
His presumed captors had said the marine had been set free and taken to a safehouse because he had promised to take off his uniform and quit the army. "Hassoun promised not to go back to the US army," the statement added.
Hassoun, born in the port city of Tripoli before emigrating to the US, went missing on June 21 near the flashpoint town of Fallujah, west of the Iraqi capital.
He married two years ago and has no children. Hassoun became a US citizen before joining the Marines, and a friend in Lebanon said he was attracted by the annual salary of up to $29 000.