An Iraqi Islamist group said it has moved abducted US marine Wassef Ali Hassoun to "a place of safety" after he pledged not to return to the American armed forces, Al Jazeera television said today.
Al Jazeera said the announcement came in a statement it received from the Islamic Response Movement, the same group it reported on June 27th as claiming to have kidnapped Hassoun and threatening to behead him.
In the statement the group did not say where Hassoun had been taken, Al Jazeera said. It gave no further details.
Eight days ago Al Jazeera showed a brief video of a blindfolded man dressed in camouflage sitting in a chair with a hand holding a sword above his head. A Marine Corps identity card identified him as Wassef Ali Hassoun.
It quoted the Islamic Response Movement as saying it had kidnapped a US marine after luring him from a US base.
Yesterday, a group calling itself the Army of Ansar al-Sunna denied reports on Islamist websites that said it had decapitated Hassoun, a Marine of Lebanese descent from the First Marine Expeditionary Force who has been missing since June 21st.