U.S. Marine to Be Freed, Lebanon Magazine Reports

A pro-Syrian magazine reported Friday that the captors of Marine Lt. Col. William R. Higgins have agreed to free him at an unspecified date.

The weekly magazine As Shiraa, which was the first to report the U.S.-Iran arms-for-hostages deal, quoted sources in southern Lebanon as saying that “no final date has been set to release Higgins.”

As Shiraa quoted the sources as saying the kidnapers made the pledge “in secret contacts undertaken by more than local and regional parties.”

“The captors were left free to decide on the date of the release, but the most important thing is that an agreement, similar to the one that led to the release of German Rudolph Schray, was reached to free Higgins,” As Shiraa said.

A Pentagon official said the Defense Department had no information other than the report in the magazine article. The official, who asked to remain anonymous, said he was skeptical of the article.

Higgins, 43, head of a 75-member U.N. team that observes a truce between Israel and Lebanon, was kidnaped Feb. 17 while driving on a coastal highway from the ancient port city of Tyre, 46 miles south of Beirut.

The clandestine Organization of the Oppressed on Earth claimed responsibility for Higgins’ abduction and accused him working for the CIA.

Schray, 31, a German-Lebanese engineer, was released March 3 after 31 days in captivity, reportedly as a result of Syrian pressure. The Strugglers for Freedom group said it freed him in a deal that would lead to the release of two Shia activists imprisoned in West Germany on terrorism charges.