http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3863773.stm
Iraq militants 'behead US marine'
Cpl Hassoun is thought to have been captured about two weeks ago
US officials say they are checking reports that a marine, kidnapped in Iraq, has been beheaded by a group believed to have links to al-Qaeda.
The announcement of the alleged death of Cpl Wassef Ali Hassoun, who is of Lebanese descent, was posted on an Islamic website on Saturday.
The group, Ansar al-Sunna, said there would be a video showing the beheading.
Cpl Hassoun's captors had threatened to kill him unless all Iraqi prisoners held by the Coalition were released.
The threat was made in a videotape broadcast last Sunday by the Arabic satellite TV channel al-Jazeera, which showed Cpl Hassoun blindfolded.
The news followed reports that Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi was considering an amnesty for those who had been fighting the US-led occupation, which could extend to those who have killed Americans.
People who were "in opposition against the Americans, that will be justified because it was an occupation force," Georges Sada, Mr Allawi's spokesman, said. "We will give them freedom."
Mr Sada added that the purpose was to give rebel fighters a second chance, but that this did not necessarily mean a full pardon.
Third beheading?
Cpl Hassoun, who is from the US state of Utah, is believed to have been captured about two weeks ago.
If his death is confirmed, he would be the third hostage to have been killed by militants in Iraq.
Last month, a South Korean translator, Kim Sun-il, was executed by his al-Qaeda-linked captors after Seoul rejected their demands for the withdrawal of South Korean troops from Iraq.
American national Nick Berg was beheaded in May by militants who said they were avenging the prisoners abused by US forces in Iraq.