Brother says missing Lebanese-American Marine was freed

BEIRUT, Lebanon — The family of Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun said Tuesday they had received word that the Lebanese-born U.S. 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 U.S. 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 Marine's fate. He has been missing since June 20.

Hassoun's brother in the north Lebanese city of Tripoli said Tuesday he is confident his brother is free, although he has not spoken to him.

"We have received reliable information the guy is free," Sami Hassoun told The Associated Press. "We received a sign from my brother reassuring us."

Sami Hassoun said the family had 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 Cpl. 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 that Lebanese diplomats in Iraq had 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 Web site that it had beheaded Hassoun and promised to release a video to prove it.

The video never emerged, and in a statement posted on another Web site, 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 group calls itself "Islamic Response," the security wing of the "National Islamic Resistance — 1920 Revolution Brigades." The name refers to an uprising against the British after World War I.