Militants say abducted US soldier beheaded in Iraq

9.30am

DUBAI - A militant group said on Saturday it had beheaded US Marine Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun, the second reported killing of a kidnapped American soldier in Iraq this week.

"We beheaded the marine of Lebanese origin Hassoun and you will see the film with your own eyes soon," the Army of Ansar al-Sunna said in a statement carried on at least two internet sites. The group said it was holding another "infidel" hostage.

It was not immediately possible to verify the authenticity of the Arabic-language statement, which was addressed to President Bush and advised him to withdraw his troops from Iraq.

Arabic television Al Jazeera last Sunday aired a video tape of militants holding a blindfolded 24-year-old Hassoun with a sword poised over his head. They demanded the release of prisoners in Iraq.

"We will soon issue a new tape showing a new infidel hostage," Ansar al-Sunna said in its statement, without giving the nationality of the hostage.

The militants said in a previous statement they would carry on attacking Iraqi officials and US-led foreign forces, despite Washington's handover to an interim Iraqi government last Monday, until "God's law" prevailed in Iraq.

Hours after Washington's handover, al Jazeera broadcast a video tape showing what militants said was the killing of US Private Keith Matthew Maupin, 20.

In the video a gunman could be seen firing one shot at the soldier, wearing greenish overalls and seen only from the back, in a dark setting. The body fell into a hole.

The US military has said Hassoun had been absent from his unit since June 21.

Ansar al-Sunna's statement said Hassoun was kidnapped when he had "romantic relations with an Arab girl and ... was lured away from his base."

Hassoun's Lebanese father had urged his son's captors to have mercy on him as a Muslim and Arab.

Ali Mohammed Hassoun told reporters in Lebanon's northern port city of Tripoli on Monday he had learned of the beheading threat to his son through the media.

He said it had been about two months since he last heard from his son, who obtained US citizenship after emigrating to the United States four years ago and joining the military.

The marine's family in West Jordan, Utah, said he had taken part in the US-led invasion of Iraq to oust Saddam Hussein.

The US military says Ansar al-Sunna could be one of a handful of groups carrying out attacks in Iraq.

The group claimed responsibility for suicide bombings last February in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil that killed more than 100 people.

A spate of kidnappings of foreigners has hit Iraq and a militant group led by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, accused by Washington of links to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda, has claimed responsibility for beheading an American and a South Korean.

On June 22, Zarqawi's group beheaded South Korean hostage Kim Sun-il after Seoul rejected a demand to withdraw its forces from Iraq.

In May, the group decapitated US hostage Nicholas Berg. US officials believe Zarqawi wielded the knife himself in Berg's killing.

One group of militants killed Italian civilian Fabrizio Quattrocchi in April but later freed three of his colleagues.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq