American and U.N. officials Monday identified a body that was dumped along a highway over the weekend as American hostage Lt. Col. William R. Higgins, the director of the American University Hospital said.
The body, in a casket draped with the U.S. flag, was driven out of the hospital's morgue in an ambulance escorted by two U.S. Embassy cars. The convoy headed in the direction of the U.S. Embassy in the east Beirut suburb of Aukar.At the United Nations, a spokeswoman for Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar also said the body had been confirmed as Higgins'. She said U.N. hostage envoy Giandomenico Picco confirmed the identity. The spokeswoman, Nadia Younes, said she didn't know how the identification was made.
The Lebanese coroner-general, Dr. Ahmed Harati, reviewed dental records and other data in an effort to identify the body. Harati said Monday he was reasonably sure it was Higgins, but he was awaiting further data from the United States before making a final identification.
The Organization of the Oppressed on Earth claimed July 31, 1989, that it hanged Higgins, a 44-year-old Vietnam veteran, in retaliation for Israel's abduction of a Shiite Muslim cleric, Sheik Abdul-Karim Obeid. The group released a videotape showing a hanged man and said it was Higgins.
Higgins, a Marine officer, was abducted Feb. 17, 1988, while serving as a U.N. observer.
Since the release of the last American hostages in Lebanon earlier this month, U.S. and United Nations officials have been pressing pro-Iranian Shiite Muslim kidnappers to turn over the remains of Higgins.
Two other Americans - William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Beirut, and librarian Peter Kilburn - died in captivity. Buckley's body has not been recovered and also is being sought by the United States. Kilburn's body was found east of Beirut in April 1986.
Higgins, of Danville, Ky., was commanding a 76-member U.N. observer group monitoring the
Lebanon-Israel border when he was kidnapped.
The return of the body is another successful step in the hostage negotiations led by Picco, who has won the release of all American and British hostages since August.
Two Germans are still being held.