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Iraq militants threaten to behead US Marine

AP, Baghdad
Insurgents threatened to behead a U.S. Marine and a Pakistani driver they had kidnapped unless the United States releases all Iraqis in "occupation jails," according to a videotape aired on Arab television.
The family of Cpl. Wassef Ali
Hassoun confirmed that he was the kidnapped American Marine who appeared in a videotape shown Sunday. The U.S. military said Hassoun, a Muslim of Lebanese origin, had been missing from his unit for nearly a week.
The hostage had a white blindfold covering his eyes. He wore military fatigues, and his mustache was trimmed.
The kidnappers claimed to have infiltrated a Marine outpost, lured Hassoun outside and abducted him. Al-Jazeera said the militants demanded the release of all Iraqis "in occupation jails" or the hostage would be killed.
They identified themselves as part of "Islamic Response," the security wing of the "National Islamic Resistance 1920 Revolution Brigades." The name refers to the uprising against the British after World War I.
The group, which has claimed responsibility for previous antiAmerican attacks, first surfaced in an Aug. 12 statement claiming the United States was hiding its casualty tolls in Iraq to help President Bush's election chances.
Hassoun's family in the Salt Lake City suburb of West Jordan asked people to join them in prayers.
"We accept destiny with its good and bad," Hassoun family friend and spokesman Tarek Nosseir said in a brief statement Sunday to reporters. "We pray and plead for his safe release and we ask all people of the world to join us in our prayers. May God bless us all."
Judy Hassoun, Wassef's former sister-in-law, said Hassoun is serving his second stint in Iraq. She did not know he was missing and has not seen Wassef in about five years.
She said he was born in Tripoli, Lebanon, educated at American schools and is fluent in Arabic. "He is a great student," she said. He is "very peaceful, but very brave, very loving."
Judy Hassoun said Wassef, one of six children, studied hard and "always wanted to get good grades. He helped everybody. He helped his mother a lot."
She said Wassef moved to the Salt Lake City area and joined the Marines after moving there.
Earlier Sunday, the Pakistani driver was shown on a tape broadcast by a different Arab television station, Al-Arabiya. The hostage displayed an identification card issued by the U.S. firm Kellogg, Brown & Root.
Four masked men holding assault rifles across their chests said they would behead the Pakistani within three days unless Americans freed prisoners held at Abu Ghraib and three cities of central Iraq Balad, Dujail and Samarra.
The gunmen said they captured the Pakistani near the U.S. base at
Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad. They did not say whether they were affiliated with any group,
The hostage, who gave his name as Amjad, urged Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to close the Pakistani Embassy in Iraq and to ban Pakistanis from coming to Iraq.
"I'm also Muslim, but despite this they didn't release me," he said, bowing his head. "They are going to cut the head of any person regardless of whether he is a Muslim or not."
In Pakistan, an official at the Foreign Ministry said they were trying to get information on the driver. "We heard about him in the newspapers this morning," the official said Monday on condition of anonymity. "Pray to Allah for peace for that man."
It was unclear if either set of kidnappers was linked to Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who claimed responsibility for the decapitation deaths of American businessman Nicholas Berg and South Korean translator Kim Sun-il last week.