American hostage Alann Steen was freed by Shiite Muslim extremists in Lebanon Tuesday and informed sources in Damascus said the last American captive, journalist Terry Anderson, could be released as early as Wednesday.
With two American hostages freed in the past 24 hours, the hostage drama in Lebanon appeared to be headed toward a rapid end.One source in the Syrian capital, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: "Anderson could be out very soon, as early as tomorrow. The pace of the releases over the last two days is a good indicator."
Another source, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said the release was expected Wednesday although there were no guarantees about the timing.
Anderson, chief Middle East correspondent for The Associated Press, was kidnapped in Beirut on March 16, 1985. He has been held longer than any other hostage.
There was no official confirmation, and no statement from Islamic Jihad, the Iranian-allied Shiite group that holds the 44-year-old Anderson.
After reaching Damascus Tuesday, Steen told reporters: "It's great to be out."
The 52-year-old Steen said one of his captors told him Anderson would be out "in about a week."
Steen, a native of Boston, looked thin and pale at a brief news conference at the Syrian Foreign Ministry. He wept as he was turned over to U.S. Ambassador Christopher Ross.
"I don't think I can find the words right now to express how I feel, except that it's wonderful," Steen said, his voice choking with emotion and his hands shaking. "Five years is no fun."
Steen said he exercised for two hours every day while in captivity but had had lots of colds. His face and neck bore scars, which he kept scratching, and he said he caused them himself when he was first allowed to shave by his captors three years ago.
Asked if he had a message for his wife, Steen said: "I love her, I miss her." The couple was married just six months before the Beirut University College journalism teacher was kidnapped.
Virginia Steen later spoke to her husband by telephone from her home in Clark Lake, Mich. "It was incredible to finally hear his voice and to think this is really, finally over," she said. "He sounds great. His sense of humor's still there."
Marlin Fitzwater, spokesman for President Bush, said the United States welcomed Steen's release. He added,"The task is not completed, however. We remember Terry Anderson and the other hostages. Once again, we call for their immediate and unconditional release, for a full accounting of those who have died in captivity, and for a return of their remains."
The pro-Iranian organization of Islamic Jihad for Liberation of Palestine said Steen, who was kidnapped Jan. 24, 1987, was freed in Beirut under a U.N.-brokered agreement. Syrian army officers drove Steen across the rainswept border to Damascus, traditional first stop for freed hostages.
The U.S. Embassy said Steen left Syria at 5:20 p.m. - only about seven hours after his release in Beirut - on a U.S. military jet bound for Germany, where American hostages are examined by doctors and debriefed by intelligence officials.
Steen is the eighth Western hostage freed since August, when the United Nations began intensive negotiations to arrange a swap of Western hostages for about 300 Arab prisoners held by Israel and its proxy militia in Lebanon. Israel seeks an accounting of four missing servicemen in Lebanon.
Iran, long the chief backer of Lebanese kidnappers, and Syria, the main power broker in Lebanon, now are both striving to free Western hostages.
American Joseph Cicippio and Steen were freed after Washington paid Iran $278 million for weaponry impounded during the 1979-80 Tehran hostage crisis.
The weapons and other Iranian assets worth billions of dollars were frozen by the United States in 1979. Tehran has in the past linked hostage releases to the return of those assets.
On Sunday, Israel released 25 Arab prisoners, bringing to 91 the total number set free since August and giving new impetus to hostage releases.
The Beirut office of Iran's official news agency said Tuesday that Anderson, 44, who was kidnapped in March 1985 and is the longest-held U.S. hostage, could be freed by week's end.
Uri Lubrani, Israel's chief hostage negotiator, was quoted as saying progress was being made on accounting for the missing servicemen. But he also told British Broadcasting Corp. no more Lebanese detainees would be released "unless there is a move with our boys."
Cicippio was freed Monday and flown to Germany. A U.S. physician said Cicippio was knocked unconscious when he was abducted in 1986, suffered frostbite in captivity that year and in 1990, but is generally healthy.
Besides Anderson, two Germans, Thomas Kemptner and Heinrich Struebig, are still held. An Italian is missing, but reports say he is dead.
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Alan Steen
Kidnapped Jan. 24, 1987
Released Dec. 3, 1991
Age 52, born in Boston
Served with marines in the Far East during the Vietnam War
Began teaching job at Beirut University College in 1983
Seized in front of his wife alont with three other teachers by gunmen idsquised as police.
Held by group calling itself the islamic Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine
Escaped during first year of imprisonment but was caught and badly beaten
On March 19, 1991, captors offered to discuss releasing him and hostage jesse Turner in exchange for Sheik Abdul-Karim-Obeid, a Shiite leader