Southland Traveler Reported Missing in Mideast

U.S. embassies in Syria and Lebanon are inquiring into the June 29 disappearance of a Mission Viejo businessman who was traveling from Beirut to Damascus, a State Department spokeswoman said.

So far there is no clue to the whereabouts of Faik Z. Wareh, 62, owner of a Garden Grove janitorial supply firm. Wareh had just completed a visit with his new wife’s family in Beirut and was driving through the Bekaa Valley to Damascus to see his two sons from a previous marriage when he apparently disappeared, his family said.

Wareh, a Syrian native who is an American citizen, did not arrive in Damascus, and no one has heard from him, said his daughter, Denise Markum, 31. Her father’s Syrian former wife reported that she had not heard from him, Markum said.