U.S. Hostage Turner Freed, Syrians Report : Mideast: Foreign Ministry says he is safe in Damascus. Wife heads for a reunion in Germany.

Jesse Turner, an American professor who was kidnaped nearly five years ago from a Beirut university, was freed Monday and was safe in Damascus early today, Syrian Foreign Ministry officials said.

In an earlier statement, U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar said he had been told that Turner was free. His information came from Giandomenico Picco, the special U.N. assistant handling hostage negotiations, “and we understand that he (Turner) is on his way to Damascus,” said U.N. spokeswoman Nadia Younes.

Perez de Cuellar thanked “groups in Lebanon” and the governments of Iran, Libya and Syria for helping to bring about the reported release, as well as Israel for releasing 15 Lebanese detainees earlier Monday.

Turner, 44, surfaced after a day of contradictory reports.

The Beirut bureau of the official Iranian news agency was among the initial sources to report that the mathematics professor from Boise, Ida., had been released. Then, a senior Syrian official and U.S. officials cast doubts on the report, saying it appeared that the Islamic Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine, the group holding Turner, would release him today.

A clearly fatigued Syrian official emerged from the Foreign Ministry building here shortly after 11 p.m. Monday and said there would be no releases during the night. “I assure you that you can go home and sleep tonight. Come back for tea tomorrow,” said Nasser Kadour, Syria’s minister of state for foreign affairs. “I hope that a hostage will be released soon.”

A short time later the U.N. statement asserted that Turner had been freed.

Turner’s wife, Badr, said Monday night that she still had not received confirmation of his release. “I really need to see his face on TV,” she said in Boise. “I actually heard the news that the U.N. is welcoming the return of Mr. Turner. Nobody called me.” Turner’s mother, Estelle Ronneburg, said the day of emotional highs and lows was “tearing me up inside.”

Turner’s freedom was tangled in complicated negotiations and complex events Monday, including an Israeli bombing mission and renewed factional fighting in southern Lebanon.

Israel, as planned, released 15 Arab prisoners--including members of the Hezbollah militia group--held primarily in southern Lebanon.

That action Monday seemingly set the stage for a hostage deal that has involved the Israelis, Syria, Iran, the United Nations, Lebanese militias and the Shiite Muslim group holding Turner and fellow Beirut University College professor Alann Steen. Turner and Steen were kidnaped Jan. 24, 1987, from Beirut University College along with two fellow academics--American Robert Polhill and Indian Mithileshwar Singh. Polhill and Singh were freed earlier.

However, later Monday, Shiite Muslim kidnapers issued an ominous warning about the Israeli air raids in southern Lebanon, declaring that the retaliatory strikes could jeopardize moves to complete a swap of Israeli-held Arab prisoners for the Western hostages.

On Monday, Israeli jets bombed Hezbollah camps in southern Lebanon. Jets hit the village of Jibchit in south Lebanon. Residents of surrounding towns were driven north by artillery fired by the South Lebanese Army, Israel’s allied militia.

(Jibchit also is the hometown of Sheik Abdel Karim Obeid, a prominent Shiite Muslim leader kidnaped by Israeli commandos in 1989. His release is considered by the hostage holders to be a key component of any final conclusion to the hostage saga.)

Israelis said the air raids were to hit back at Hezbollah, a Shiite militia that took responsibility for setting a roadside bomb that exploded Sunday and killed three Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah had claimed that the attack on the soldiers was a show of opposition to the upcoming conference on peace in the Middle East, scheduled for next week in Madrid.

“We have the power and right to react,” Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir said on radio, defending the Lebanon bombings. Government spokesman Yossi Olmert, added: “There is no link between the retaliation and the hostages. With the release of prisoners, we reciprocate goodwill. The bombing reciprocates an attack.”

On Monday, Islamic Jihad, which is believed to hold U.S. hostages Terry A. Anderson and Thomas Sutherland and British Anglican envoy Terry Waite, urged Perez de Cuellar to “intervene immediately to lift the siege and stop the attacks” on Shiite Muslim villages in southern Lebanon. “Islamic Jihad condemns these tyrannical Zionist practices,” the group said.

Although most of the kidnaping groups are thought to be closely related, Islamic Jihad is apparently separate from Islamic Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine, the group that was holding Turner.

Further complicating the picture on Monday were violent clashes that broke out in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, where many of the hostages are believed to be held, between Hezbollah militia and members of the influential Shiite Jaafer clan. News agencies in Beirut reported eight people killed and 15 wounded in the fighting, which was partially quelled after Syrian soldiers moved into the streets with megaphones calling for both sides to withdraw.

But precisely what prompted the delay in the release of Turner was not known.

Murphy reported from Damascus and Williams from Jerusalem. Times staff writer John J. Goldman contributed to this report from the United Nations, as did special correspondent Marilyn Raschka from Beirut.

Still Held Captive

These four Americans are still believed to be held captive in Lebanon: TERRY A. ANDERSON, 43, of Lorain, Ohio. Kidnaped March 16, 1985. Chief Middle East correspondent for Associated Press. Has never seen his second daughter, Sulome, who was born after his abduction. Father and brother died while he was held in Lebanon.

THOMAS SUTHERLAND, 60, of Ft. Collins, Colo. Kidnaped June 9, 1985. Dean of agriculture at American University of Beirut. Abducted while driving from airport to the university. Wife Jean also taught at university.

JOSEPH J. CICIPPIO, 60, of Valley Forge, Pa. Kidnaped Sept. 12, 1986. Acting controller for American University of Beirut. Abducted by gunmen as he was leaving campus apartment. Converted to Islam before kidnaping.

ALANN STEEN, 52, of Boston. Kidnaped Jan. 24, 1987. Journalism professor at Beirut University College. Kidnaped with Turner and two fellow academics who were later freed. Islamic Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine claimed responsibility.

OTHER WESTERNERS HELD:

Terry Waite, 52, Britain. Disappeared Jan. 20, 1987.

Alberto Molinari, 81, Italy. Kidnaped Sept. 11, 1985.

Thomas Kemptner, 29, and Heinrich Struebig, 50, both of Germany. Kidnaped May 16, 1989.