Jihad Releases Captive’s Photo, Accuses CIA

The Islamic Jihad group today released a color photograph of kidnaped American David Jacobsen, but denied earlier telephoned claims that it killed a Briton and carried out bombings in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

A typewritten statement in Arabic accompanied by the photo of Jacobsen was sent to a Western news agency in Beirut.

The statement, which did not mention Jacobsen’s abduction, accused the CIA of killing British teacher Denis Hill, 53, in Beirut last week.

It charged that the CIA was also behind the attempted assassination May 25 of the Emir of Kuwait and two bombings in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, May 17 in a bid to “sabotage” the fundamentalist Muslim group.

Appeared Grim

The photograph showed Jacobsen from the waist up. The American’s face was grim.

Jacobsen, 54, manager of the American University Hospital in Beirut, was abducted last Tuesday as he walked from the university campus to the hospital a block away.

In a telephoned statement a day later, a caller claiming to belong to Islamic Jihad said the group kidnaped Jacobsen and killed Hill, an English teacher at the American University, as he tried to escape from gunmen who kidnaped him.

Islamic Jihad is a shadowy underground group that is believed to have links to the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s regime in Iran.

Responsibility Claimed

Last month, anonymous callers claimed that Islamic Jihad was behind two bombings in Riyadh that killed one person and a suicide bombing against Kuwait’s ruler, Sheik Jabbar al Ahmed al Sabah, May 25 that left four dead. The emir escaped with minor facial cuts.

The photograph and message were released as tank and artillery clashes between Shia Muslim Amal militiamen and Palestinian fighters broke a shaky cease-fire in Beirut, threatening the latest attempt to end the violence in the embattled capital.

Military sources said sporadic nightlong skirmishes between Amal militiamen and Palestinian guerrillas trapped in the Chatilla and Borj el Brajne refugee camps escalated into heavy fighting shortly after 8 a.m.

The fighting delayed Red Cross plans to remove more casualties from the camps after a weekend of evacuation operations.