Utahns pray for captive Marine

WEST VALLEY CITY — Fellow Muslims — as well as Utahns of other faiths — united in prayer Monday for the safe return of Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun, the Marine from West Jordan threatened with decapitation after he was seized by terrorists in Iraq.

At the Khadeeja mosque here, a group of about 30 Muslim men gathered in a circle before sunset prayers, offering a special prayer for the safe return of one of their own. Men bowed their heads in concentration and remorse as Imam Shuaib-Ud Din read passages from the Quran, the faith's holy book.

Some kept vigil by taking turns reading sections from the Quran, planning to read it in its entirety.

"Allah, forgive our sins," said Shuaib. "Allah, we ask for his release and his safe return." Shuaib prayed for the release of all captives, peace on Earth and the end of all wars. He prayed for all Muslims, and all of humanity, to be relieved of all of the burdens of their making.

Earlier in the day, Utahns of other faiths gathered on the steps of the Capitol to pray for the well-being of the young Marine, who lived in Lebanon as a child and then moved to West Jordan.

Meanwhile, the military remained tight-lipped about the capture of 24-year-old Hassoun, who is being held by a group calling itself the Islamic Retaliation Movement/Armed Resistance Wing. A spokesman for the Coalition Press Information Center in Baghdad e-mailed a statement to the Deseret Morning News saying Hassoun "did not report for duty June 20 and was last seen June 19."

A Marine spokesman told the newspaper on Sunday that Hassoun was a member of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force. The unit is based in Camp Pendleton, Calif., when not overseas.

The Associated Press quoted Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, coalition deputy operations chief in Baghdad, as saying Hassoun had gone on "an unauthorized absence."

Kimmitt added, according to AP, "Based on his personal situation, there was reason to suspect that he was heading over to Lebanon." He said the military is investigating and doing everything necessary "to prepare for any future operation in regard to the young Marine."

Hassoun's relatives in Lebanon said he hails from the town of Al-Safira in northern Lebanon's remote Dinniyah mountain region, but he lived in the northern port city of Tripoli, 85 kilometers (50 miles) north of Beirut, until he emigrated to the United States in the early 1990s.