Militants confirm death of US captive
An Iraqi militant group has confirmed on a website that it has beheaded a captive US marine.
The group, called the Ansar al-Sunna Army, posted a written statement on Saturday on an Islamic website claiming that it had killed Lebanese-born Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun, saying he had been lured into a trap involving a love affair with an Arab woman.
“We would like to inform you that the Marine of Lebanese origin, Hassoun, has been slaughtered.
"You are going to see the video with your very eyes soon,” said the statement, signed in the name of the group’s leader, Abu Abdullah al-Hassan bin Mahmoud.
It also said it had taken another hostage but did not give details.
The group called itself the Ansar al-Sunna Army in Qaim, a town on the Syrian border that has seen frequent clashes between US troops and militants.
The message was dated June 20, the day the military said Hassoun, of West Jordan, Utah, was first reported missing – though the posting was dated on Saturday.
Saturday’s claim on Hassoun’s death was issued on the same Islamic extremist web forum where footage was posted last month showing the beheading of US engineer Paul M. Johnson Jr., in Saudi Arabia.
The site also often carries claims of attacks by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian militant said to be operating in Iraq.
Al-Zarqawi’s movement claimed responsibility for the beheading last month of Kim Sun-il, a South Korean who worked for a company delivering supplies to American forces, and Nicholas Berg, an American businessman, whose body was found in Baghdad in May.
Lebanon’s state-run news agency later reported that Hassoun had been killed.
The National News Agency cited the Foreign Ministry, which was informed of the death by Lebanon’s charge d’affairs in Baghdad. The agency did not say how Lebanon-born Hassoun’s death had been confirmed.
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