Our marines in Iraq are now on the hunt

[Shaun]

Our marines in Iraq are now on the hunt

courtesy of FoxNews.

Group Claims It Killed Captured Marine

Saturday, July 03, 2004



BAGHDAD, Iraq — An Iraqi terrorist group claimed on Saturday that it had killed captured U.S. Marine Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun (search).

The group, calling itself the Ansar al-Sunna Army (search), said in a written statement on an Islamic web site that Lebanese-born Hassoun's throat had been slit. It also said it had taken another hostage but did not give details.

If confirmed, Hassoun's slaying would be the fourth death of a foreign hostage in the region since May.

The U.S. military said it was investigating the report of the 24-year-old's death. It was not immediately possible to verify the authenticity of the group's statement.

Hassoun's family remained in seclusion in their West Jordan, Utah, home. They were visited by police Capt. Gary Cox and a local imam Saturday afternoon.

"Every family has a different way of dealing with the crisis. This family prefers less attention," Imam Shuaib-Ud Din said following a brief meeting with the Hassoun family. "They don't like the media outlets to be pounding on their door. They would like some privacy."

Din, the imam at Khadeeja mosque in nearby West Valley City, also cautioned the public against automatically believing reports out of the Middle East.

"We hope it is a rumor," he said.

It seemed unlikely that the family would come out to make a statement to the media, who were still parked across the street. The family's split-level home was surrounded by 30 American flags, placed there by local Boy Scouts earlier this week.

A New Threat in Iraq

"We would like to inform you that the Marine of Lebanese origin, Hassoun, has been slaughtered. You are going to see the video with your very eyes soon," said the statement on the Arabic-language Web site. It was signed in the name of the group's leader, Abu Abdullah al-Hassan bin Mahmoud.

The group called itself the Ansar al-Sunna Army in Qaim, a town on the Iraqi border with Syria (search) that has seen frequent clashes between U.S. troops and militants. The message was dated June 20, the day the military said Hassoun was first reported missing — though the posting was dated Saturday.

"We will show a new video of the detention of a new infidel hostage and as recently promised, the beheading of rotten heads," the statement said.

"Withdraw your army and you will be safe," it said. "Or else we will keep doing what we are doing."

On June 27, the Arab television station Al-Jazeera (search) broadcast a videotape showing Hassoun blindfolded, along with a statement from militants threatening to kill him unless the United States releases all Iraqis in "occupation jails."

In that initial statement, the kidnappers identified themselves as "Islamic Response," the security wing of the "National Islamic Resistance - 1920 Revolution Brigades" referring to the uprising against the British after World War I.

Saturday's claim on Hassoun's death was issued on the same Islamic extremist Web forum where footage was posted last month showing the beheading of U.S. engineer Paul M. Johnson Jr., in Saudi Arabia. The site also often carries claims of attacks by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian militant said to be operating in Iraq.

Al-Zarqawi's movement claimed responsibility for the beheading of Kim Sun-il, a South Korean who worked for a company delivering supplies to American forces, and Nicholas Berg, an American businessman, whose body was found in Baghdad in May. Johnson's slaying was claimed by Al Qaeda-linked militants in Saudi Arabia, and pictures of his severed head were posted on the Internet.

Another militant group in Iraq claimed last week that it had killed Spc. Keith M. Maupin, an American soldier who had been held captive since April. The military has not yet confirmed that Maupin was shown in grainy video footage of a man being shot in the back of the head.

In Saturday's statement, the militants said they used a woman to trap Hassoun. "As your soldier had a love affair with a young Arab woman, he has been lured from the base," the statement said.

The U.S. military said Hassoun had been absent without authorization since July 20, though after the video was shown it listed his status as "captured."

The New York Times, citing a Marine officer who spoke on the condition of anonymity, has reported on its Web site that Hassoun had been traumatized after seeing one of his sergeants killed by a mortar, and was trying to make his way back to Lebanon. The officer told the paper that Hassoun sought the help of Iraqis on the base, was betrayed by them, and was handed over the extremists.

Hassoun's eldest brother, Mohammad, who lives in a Salt Lake City suburb, denied the report.

Ansar al-Sunna Army claimed responsibility for the twin homicide attacks on the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party offices in Irbil on Feb. 1 that killed 109 people.

At the time, the U.S. military in Iraq believed the group was an offshoot of Ansar al-Islam, but this view later changed. There has been speculation that the group was formed from among Iraqi followers of the strict Wahhabi sect of Sunni Islam, which is widely followed in neighboring Saudi Arabia. Critics of the sect accuse it of fostering extremism.

[BattleRifleG3]

Islam is supposed to mean peace, and they use it to name their terrorist group.

A friend of mine once said "Nuke them... and their goats."

[PAPA G]

i hope the Marine Command takes the initiative, and starts wiping out the bastages!!! Allah be dam*ed!!!

[Rufus Rhastus J]

Out spoken threats like these are just "in your face tactics!" This type of stuff should not be tolerated but, I'm at a lose to decide what really should be done. But, i believe the troops have the intel and I wish they would be allowed to run as loosely as the vermin. Maybe then....

[Big Dog]

The Marines are ready and willing to do the job - but the political hacks will keep them on a short leash. And America still sleeps . . .

The reason we don't act like those we're after is because we hold ourselves to a higher standard of behavior. It is frustrating at times, but the better way.

[Dennis]

(in pure Strother Martin)
Wut we haaave heeeere is, failure to communicate, some men you cannot reach........

We must communicate to the people of Iraq
many of them we cannot reach.
Those that choose to not understand,
we must take away every thing they got, and every thing they are ever gonna have.

Dennis, here is a question or two: have we tried to understand the people of Iraq? How well have we communicated our objectives? How does our message translate to the man on the street?

I like the fact that a talk radio station is up and running.

[Rufus Rhastus J]

I'm thinking some really serious security. Come close, die! Maybe that would get thier minds focused so the "good" towel head would know. the bad "towel" head won't care, he's ready to die anyway. It sure would go a long way to help our troops to identify the enemy. Just a thought. I have no doubt our troops are ready to finish these vermin off. Why not let them? Who cares what the world thinks? It's our guys dieing. And, frankly speaking, I don't care what those camel molesters think, like or dream about. I know enough about the muslem culture now. Thank themselves for the quickly growing hate most Americans feel for them. they have no one to blame but, themselves. So, I don't want to be thier pal, I want the oil and to be as far away from them and thier kind as I can get.