2 W. Germans, American Reported Seized in Beirut : Lebanon: A California woman is believed among the new hostages.

The Organization of Just Revenge, a previously unknown group, claimed Wednesday to have kidnaped three foreigners in West Beirut. It identified them as Deborah Fahrend of San Geronimo, Calif., and two naturalized West Germans.

The group claimed responsibility in a typewritten statement delivered to an international news agency in the Lebanese capital. Photocopies of the hostages’ passports were enclosed, and State Department officials said they are taking the statement seriously.

The latest abduction claim came a week after the United States returned $567 million of frozen assets to Iran as part of a new effort to free the eight Americans already held in Lebanon.

U.S. counterterrorism officials said, however, that there were no indications that a pro-Iranian Shiite group was responsible. In the past, women seized by various cells under the umbrella of Hezbollah, or Party of God, have been released, a State Department official noted.

“There are other groups that have taken Americans in the past. It may even be a local affair,” he said.

Fahrend was reportedly traveling with Mounir Shamseddin Sami and his son Daniel, 7. Sami, who is Lebanese-born, has parents still living in Lebanon.

If the kidnaping is confirmed, Fahrend, 54, would be the only female foreigner held in Lebanon. There are 16 other Western hostages in Lebanon, some of whom have been held for almost five years. More than 2,000 Lebanese have been taken hostage since the civil war erupted in 1975, according to the local Red Crescent organization.

In a typewritten communique in Arabic, the Organization of Just Revenge said that it had abducted the three because “of their activities in Lebanon.” The poorly written letter contained no specific demands for the release of the new hostages.

Fahrend’s passport describes her as a publisher-journalist. The photocopied documents indicate that she entered Lebanon on Nov. 3 through the Lebanese port of Juniyah in the Christian-dominated enclave.

The Associated Press reported from Beirut that the photocopied passport identified Fahrend’s parents as Margaret and Frederick Brooks. The passport was issued in San Francisco on Oct. 15, 1984. The AP also quoted an employee of the post office in San Geronimo, a small Marin County town about 20 miles north of San Francisco, as saying that Fahrend maintained a postal box there for many years, but that she had left the area in 1987 for Europe.

The State Department said that the photocopy was too poor to confirm that the passport number was the same as that issued to Fahrend. The United States has limited access to Lebanon since it withdrew all embassy personnel on Sept. 22. All consular affairs are now handled in Cyprus.

In an attempt to prevent American citizens from visiting Lebanon, the State Department requires that holders of U.S. passports receive a special waiver. Violators are subject to penalties. The State Department said it is checking to see if Fahrend had applied for a waiver.

The West German Embassy in Beirut said it was unaware of the kidnapings until the statement was delivered to a news agency.