Kidnapers in Beirut Free British Women Unharmed

Two British women who were kidnaped in Muslim West Beirut 13 days ago were released today. They appeared shaken but apparently unharmed.

The women, 28-year-old Amanda McGrath, a teacher at the American University of Beirut’s intensive English program, and Hazel Moss, 45, the former manager of a Beirut restaurant, were freed near the Commodore Hotel in West Beirut late in the evening.

Associated Press reporters who saw the women said they showed no signs of having been physically mistreated.

Both immediately called their families in England.

“I am fine. We’ve just been released,” McGrath told her father. “I am well and I even gained weight. I wasn’t hurt.”

The two said they did not know who their captors were.

Police in Beirut reported Sept. 26 that the women were seen being pushed into a car outside of their Makhoul Street apartment by men armed with pistols and an AK-47 assault rifle.

Still missing are a British journalist and 11 other Westerners, all men, kidnaped in West Beirut since March, 1984. Six are Americans, four are French and one is Italian.

The Muslim group that has claimed responsibility for holding the American and French hostages, Islamic Jihad or Islamic Holy War, said last Wednesday that one of the Americans, U.S. Embassy employee William Buckley, was killed in captivity.

Fourteen other foreigners have been kidnaped and released since January, 1984, and two others have been found slain.