The sound of fireworks shakes the air outside tonight as we celebrate Independence Day. Yesterday, Utah welcomed home the 419th Transportation Unit from Iraq, a unit that saw their duty extended two times. But many thoughts and hearts have been turned toward Wassef Ali Hassoun, the Muslim marine from West Jordan, Utah. He was taken hostage around June 19th or the 21st, depending on the news source you were reading, by an Iraqi militant group. They vowed to behead Wassef if the US did not release all of the detainees in the war prisons.
Many people, including the Hassoun family in Utah and Lebanon, where Wassef's father and brother live, found hope in the news of the three Turkish hostages being released because of their ties to Islam. A great debate has arisen in the Middle East the past week about whether it is right to harm a fellow Muslim. But today, the debates and pleadings for Wassef's safe release could not save him. The militant group holding him hostage claims that they have beheaded Wassef Hassoun.
According to NADIA ABOU EL-MAGD Associated Press article, this is what we know:
BAGHDAD, Iraq - An Iraqi militant group claimed on a Web site Saturday it beheaded a captive U.S. Marine, in what would be the fourth decapitation of a foreign hostage in the region since May.
The group, called the Ansar al-Sunna Army, posted a written statement on an Islamic Web site claiming that it had killed Lebanese-born Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun, saying he had been lured into a trap involving a love affair with an Arab woman....
The U.S. military in Baghdad said it was checking into the report of the 24-year-old Hassoun's death but had no confirmation.
It was not immediately possible to verify the authenticity of the group's statement.
"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, signed in the name of the group's leader, Abu Abdullah al-Hassan bin Mahmoud.
It also said it had taken another hostage but did not give details....
"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. Or else we will keep doing what we are doing."
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.
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 June 20, though after the video was shown it changed his status to "captured."
The Marine's relatives were in seclusion at their Utah home after the Web site posting Saturday.
I don't know the politics behind why or how Hassoun was kidnapped and held hostage by the Islamic Response but beheaded by Ansar al-Sunna Army. Why they felt it necessary to explain how they lured him off base, because of his love for a woman, is beyond me?
No matter these questions, it appears that we will be seeing evidence that Wassef's life has been taken, another casualty to this war.
The life of a firecracker is short, yet grand and majestic. At its best, it bursts out into the open air in such fiery colors and heat that it captures your attention and takes your breath away. Wassef Ali Hassoun is the first Muslim to die by the sword of militants. In this respect, he has captured the attention of the world and will not easily be forgotten, nor should he be.
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