An American Marine reported missing in Iraq three weeks ago has turned up at the American Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, further clouding the already murky circumstances surrounding his disappearance.
Wassef Ali Hassoun, 24, the Lebanese-American Marine who vanished from his base on June 20, arrived Thursday night at the embassy in suburban Aukar accompanied by relatives, said Elizabeth Wharton, the spokeswoman for the embassy.
Contradictory reports about Hassoun, including reports of his beheading at the hands of his captors, have created a confusing picture of what may or may not have happened to him.
PHOTO: AP
His sudden resurfacing Thursday -- and a shootout earlier in the day near his relatives' home in the northern city of Tripoli -- only added to the mystery.
In Washington, Defense Department and Marine Corps officials said Thursday they had scant information about Hassoun, and declined to comment on most aspects of his case pending the outcome of two parallel military investigations.
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency are both conducting inquiries into the events surrounding Hassoun's disappearance from his unit. Officials said that naval investigators were looking at a range of possibilities, including that Hassoun was kidnapped, deserted his unit or staged an elaborate hoax with the aid of Iraqi confederates.
Defense officials said they had no details on how he got from his unit in Iraq to Beirut. "The investigation is ongoing, and we don't know how he got there or what went on between the time that he was reported missing from his unit until he got to Lebanon," Brigadier General David Rodriguez, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters at the Pentagon.
Rodriguez said he "came to link up" with personnel at the US Embassy in Beirut, and was not picked up by the military.
Military officials said Hassoun would be flown to an American military hospital in Germany, where he would undergo medical and psychological exams, and be questioned by investigators. Ultimately, he is expected to return to his home base, at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina with possibly a brief stopover in Washington.
News reports in Lebanon said members of the extended Hassoun clan had opened fire on the corporal's relatives, condemning them for being American collaborators. Two people died, the reports said, but were not members of the clan.
Tripoli is a stronghold of Sunni Muslim fundamentalists, and anti-American feelings have been running high throughout the Middle East because of American support for Israel and the invasion of Iraq.
Sami Hassoun, the marine's older brother, said, "We have an emergency here," and hung up when reached by telephone. Local reports said members of the 1,000-member clan had blocked the family's street with vehicles.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of