Militants deny killing US Marine hostage in Iraq

8.25am - By ALISTAIR LYON

BAGHDAD - An Islamist militant group denied on Sunday it had beheaded a US marine missing in Iraq and seen earlier being threatened by his captors with a sword.

Fears for Lebanese-born Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun had risen after a statement appeared on two Islamist websites on Saturday saying the Army of Ansar al-Sunna had decapitated him.

"This statement that claimed to be from us has no basis in truth," the Army of Ansar al-Sunna said on what it called its official website. However, the group said it believed that killing "such filth brings one closer to God".

There was no way to verify which, if either, of the statements attributed to Ansar al-Sunna was authentic.

To compound the confusion, Hassoun's kidnapping was first claimed by a group calling itself the Islamic Response Movement, security wing of the 1920 Revolution Brigades.

The US military, the Lebanese foreign ministry and Hassoun's family said they had no evidence he was dead.

Arabic Al Jazeera television aired a videotape a week ago of militants holding a sword over a blindfolded Hassoun.

The US military says he has been absent from his unit since June 21. His Lebanese father has urged his son's captors to have mercy on him as a Muslim and an Arab.

Saturday's statement attributed to the Army of Ansar al-Sunna said Hassoun had been kidnapped after a love affair with an Arab woman lured him from his base.

Curbing kidnapping is among the many challenges facing Iraq's new interim government, formally given sovereign powers after the US-led occupation ended last Monday.

Hours after the handover, al Jazeera broadcast a video tape showing what militants said was the killing of US Private Keith Matthew Maupin, 20. His death has not been confirmed.

Kidnappers have seized dozens of foreigners in Iraq since April and at least four hostages have been killed.

A militant group led by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, accused by Washington of links to al Qaeda, has claimed responsibility for beheading an American and a South Korean.

Iraq's new government has vowed to crush insurgents, who include Saddam Hussein loyalists and foreign Islamist militants.

A suicide bombing was foiled in Baquba, north of Baghdad, on Sunday, police said.

Guards fired on an explosives-laden car as it drove towards the local headquarters of the paramilitary National Guard, killing the driver and two people in another car that was caught in the crossfire.

Up to 300 people, some with grenade launchers, marched in the restive town Falluja in protest against the Iraqi tribunal that set out charges against Saddam last week.

"Bush, Bush, listen well, we all sacrifice for Saddam Hussein," demonstrators chanted. Witnesses said the protesters dispersed swiftly after other townspeople intervened.

Iran said it wanted Saddam prosecuted on charges related to the lengthy war he waged against the Islamic republic.

Saddam, caught last year by US troops, appeared in court on Thursday and was told by an Iraqi judge he would face charges relating to seven alleged crimes spanning three decades, but no mention was made of the 1980-1988 war against Iran.

"Iran will definitely submit an indictment to the court," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said in Tehran.

(With reporting by Fiona O'Brien in Beirut, Parisa Hafezi in Tehran, Fadel Badran in Falluja and Maher al-Thanoon in Mosul)

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq