A group that has been holding a United States marine hostage for more than a week has beheaded the soldier and will soon release a video showing the murder, the group announced in a message posted on Arabic websites on Saturday.
US military officials are checking the report, but could not confirm that it was accurate, news reports said.
The marine, Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun (24), of Lebanese descent, appeared in a video broadcast on Sunday by the Arab satellite news channel al-Jazeera. The video showed him blindfolded and one of his captors held a sword over his head.
The announcement appeared in Arab-language chat rooms, but not on the website of Ansar al-Sunna, the group holding the marine, Fox New reported.
The message said a video showing the beheading will be made available, according to al-Jazeera.
”We would like to inform you that the marine of Lebanese descent has been killed, and you will soon see the movie with your own eyes,” said the statement, signed in the name of the group’s leader, Abu Abdullah al-Hassan bin Mahmoud.
Hassoun’s captors had threatened to kill him unless all Iraqi prisoners held by coalition forces were released. Lieutenant Colonel PVJohnson said he was surprised over how a message released on the internet has become so widely reported as fact.
”I’m not going to go along with it,” he told Fox News. ”We have to believe this marine is alive.”
Hassoun, who is from the US state of Utah, is believed to have been captured about two weeks ago. He was last seen about a week before the videotape was broadcast, the military said.
The military initially believed Hassoun may have gone missing, but the video prompted the military to change his status to ”captured”.
At his home in West Jordan, Utah, Hassoun’s family kept their silence, but the head of the Muslim community met with family members, Fox News reported. Earlier in the week the family was more visible.
Hassoun’s brother, Sami, appealed to the group holding Hassoun to spare his life. Sami Hassoun said his brother worked a translator after joining the military about two years ago.
If his death is confirmed, he would be the third hostage to have been killed by militants in Iraq. Last month, a South Korean translator, Kim Sun-il, was executed by his al-Qaeda-linked captors after Seoul rejected their demands for the withdrawal of South Korean troops from Iraq.
American national Nicholas Berg was beheaded in May by militants who said they were avenging prisoners abused by US forces in Iraq. Another American, Paul Johnson, was beheaded by his captors in Saudi Arabia, also in May.
The group’s announcement of the beheading followed reports that Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi is considering an amnesty for fighters who fought the US-led occupation.
Opposition to Americans ”will be justified because it was an occupation force”, Georges Sada, Allawi’s spokesperson, said, according to al-Jazeera. ”We will give them freedom.”
Sada added that the purpose is to give rebel fighters a second chance, but that this does not necessarily mean a full pardon. — Sapa-DPA