Group Says It Killed Marine

Militants in Iraq claimed Saturday to have beheaded a Lebanese-born U.S. Marine and said footage of the execution would soon follow.

No video had surfaced by morning here, and the kidnappers’ claim could not be verified.

The reported slaying of Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun, which would be the fourth beheading by militants in the region in two months, served as a chilling rupture of the relative calm that had prevailed in Iraq since U.S.-led occupation forces handed sovereignty to an interim Iraqi leadership nearly a week ago.

“In the name of God, for those who follow Guidance, we would like to inform you that the Marine of Lebanese origin Hassoun has been slaughtered,” said an Internet message from a group calling itself the Ansar al Sunna Army. The same website carried initial word of the beheading of an American contractor in Saudi Arabia on June 18, as well as various claims by Abu Musab Zarqawi, whom U.S. officials blame for a wave of suicide bombings and other attacks in Iraq.

Addressed to President Bush, the statement warned: “Withdraw your army and you will be safe. Or else we will keep on doing what we are doing.”

On Tuesday, the Arabic satellite TV channel Al Jazeera reported that U.S. Army Spc. Keith Matthew Maupin, who was taken hostage April 9, had been killed by his captors. It aired a grainy video purporting to show the soldier being killed with a single shot to the back of the head. But military investigators said it was impossible to determine the identity of the subject because of the poor quality of the video.

Ansar al Sunna, which claimed responsibility for suicide bombings Feb. 1 that killed more than 100 people in the Kurdish stronghold of Irbil, also said Saturday that it would soon release evidence that it had kidnapped “a new infidel.” It did not give the captive’s nationality or say how the group came to detain him.

“We will show a new video of the detention of a new infidel hostage and as recently promised, the beheading of rotten heads,” the statement said.

Ansar al Sunna is believed to be an offshoot of the Ansar al Islam extremist group that, like Zarqawi’s organization, is said to be allied with Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda terrorist network.

In West Jordan, Utah, Hassoun’s family remained in seclusion as news of the 24-year-old Marine’s reported beheading spread. Family members stayed inside their large suburban house, its heavy drapes drawn, as members of the local Muslim community visited, expressing sympathies and wishes for a hopeful outcome.

“Right now, there’s nothing the family can do. They’re just praying for his safe return,” said Tarek Nosseir, a local Muslim leader and spokesman for the family. Nosseir said the family would not comment until it received confirmation of Hassoun’s fate.

At the Al Noor mosque in nearby Salt Lake City, imam Ali Mohamed, who held a special prayer service a day earlier asking for Hassoun’s release, expressed shock at the reports. “I can’t believe they killed him,” he said.

“Why did they kill him? What is the purpose? It’s very awful, and we’re all very sorry. But God has a purpose for everything.”

Outside the family house, surrounded by American flags donated by local Boy Scouts, neighbor Luis Garcia and his two children laid a bunch of flowers on the driveway. “We just heard about it on TV,” Garcia, 29, said. “I know how they feel. I had kids too.”

In Baghdad on Saturday, five Iraqi National Guardsmen were killed in an insurgent ambush of a roadblock, and a Marine died of wounds sustained Friday in an attack near Fallouja, a military spokesman said. In southern Iraq, an oil pipeline ruptured early Saturday, but a British military official said there was no evidence of sabotage.

In the website claim of Hassoun’s killing, the militants contended that the Marine had been intimate with an unidentified local woman, suggesting that his execution was in part punishment for violating Muslim religious values.

“Your soldier had romantic relations with an Arab girl,” the statement said.

Dozens of coalition troops and contractors have fallen into the hands of insurgents trying to drive out foreign forces from Iraq. But the extremists have begun beheading hostages only recently, in what analysts say is a concerted effort to sow terror and revulsion.

Hassoun’s reported death follows the May beheading of American communications contractor Nicholas Berg, 26. A group claiming allegiance to Zarqawi asserted responsibility for his death. It also said it had beheaded South Korean interpreter Kim Sun Il on June 22. American Paul M. Johnson Jr., a Lockheed Martin engineer, was beheaded in Saudi Arabia four days earlier.

Hassoun, whose family moved to the United States in the 1990s, was last seen with his unit June 19. The military reported him missing two days later and revised his status to “captured” only Tuesday.

“His primary next of kin was notified shortly after he was determined to be missing from his unit,” said Maj. Earle Bluff of the multinational forces information center in Baghdad. “However, the Marine Expeditionary Force has determined nothing further about his status at this time.”

Al Jazeera broadcast footage of the blindfolded soldier June 27, with his captors holding a sword at the back of his head and demanding that all Iraqi prisoners held by U.S.-led forces be freed.

Hassoun’s father, Ali Mohammed Hassoun of Tripoli, Lebanon, appealed for mercy for his son, noting that he was a Muslim and an Arab.

Five Turks and a Pakistani seized last month were released in the last few days because, according to their captors, they had repented of collaborating with U.S. forces. It was also noted that they were fellow Muslims and that their countries were not party to the U.S.-led invasion or occupation.

Two American contractors remain missing after an ambush April 9 on the convoy in which they were traveling -- the same attack in which Maupin was taken captive.

An Iraqi American, Aban Elias, was captured by a group calling itself the Islamic Rage Brigade on May 3.

Thirty-five hostages of various nationalities have been released or rescued or have escaped their captors.

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Times staff writer David Kelly in West Jordan contributed to this report.