Kidnapped Marine is free, family says

BEIRUT -- The family of Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun said yesterday they had received word that the Lebanese-born US Marine -- who was kidnapped in Iraq and at one point was reported beheaded -- was free and well.

A Lebanese government official also said Hassoun was released, though his whereabouts were unknown. The kidnappers freed the 24-year-old Marine after he pledged not to return to the US military, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The two statements were positive signals for Hassoun's relatives in Lebanon and the United States, who have seen their hopes rise and plummet amid contradictory Internet messages by Iraqi militants over the Marine's fate. He has been missing since June 20.

Hassoun's brother in the north Lebanese city of Tripoli said yesterday he is confident his brother is free, although they have not spoken.

''We have received reliable information the guy is free," Sami Hassoun said. ''We received a sign from my brother reassuring us."

Sami Hassoun said the family received credible information from a person who came to their Tripoli home. The person, whom he did not identify, did not say where the Marine was, Sami Hassoun said.

Since Corporal Hassoun's abduction, the family in Tripoli -- where his father, Ali, lives -- has been in touch with politicians and Muslim clerics in Lebanon and Islamic groups in Iraq to try to secure the Marine's release.

Foreign Ministry officials in Beirut said Lebanese diplomats in Iraq told them Hassoun is alive. They gave no further details.

On Saturday, a militant group calling itself the Ansar al-Sunna Army claimed on a website that it had beheaded Hassoun, and promised to release a video.

The video never emerged, and in a statement posted on another website, the group said Sunday it did not issue the statement about Hassoun being beheaded.

On Monday, a group calling itself Islamic Response told Al-Jazeera television that Hassoun was safe at an undisclosed location. It claimed Hassoun had promised not to return to the American military. The statement was issued in the same name used in the original kidnapping claim -- a June 27 video that showed Hassoun blindfolded with a sword brandished over his head.

The Islamic Response is the security wing of the National Islamic Resistance -- 1920 Revolution Brigades. The name refers to an uprising against the British after World War I.

In West Jordan, Utah, home of Corporal Hassoun's eldest brother, Mohammed, family spokesman Tarek Nosseir said after Monday's statement, ''We pray that the news of his safe release is true."

There were no signs of activity yesterday at the Hassouns' home in the Salt Lake City suburb. Hassoun's alleged captors have claimed he was romantically involved with an Arab woman and was lured away from his Marine base and captured.

The US military said Hassoun was absent without authorization since June 20. His status was later changed to captured.

The New York Times, citing a Marine officer who spoke on condition of anonymity, reported Hassoun had been traumatized after seeing one of his sergeants killed by an explosive and was trying to make his way back to Lebanon. The officer told the paper Hassoun sought the help of Iraqis at his military base but was betrayed and handed over to extremists.

Mohammed Hassoun has denied the Times report.