U.S. Hostage Dies, Iraq Claims

BAGHDAD, Iraq —  The acting ambassador at the U.S. Embassy said today that the Iraqi Foreign Ministry told him that a 54-year-old American died Monday of an apparent heart attack while in Iraqi custody in the southern port city of Basra.

Quoting a senior Iraqi Foreign Ministry official, Joseph Wilson, charge d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy here, said the American citizen, who reportedly was detained in Kuwait and brought to Iraq by military authorities last week, died while reading a book in one of the several key facilities where Iraq has placed at least 200 Westerners.

“The Foreign Ministry called me to express their regret and said we would be permitted to participate in an autopsy,” Wilson said, adding that he could not release the victim’s name until his identity is confirmed and his family notified.

Iraqi Foreign Ministry officials could not be reached for independent confirmation, but Wilson said he had no reason to believe the report was untrue.

The victim’s body was due to arrive in Baghdad today. Few other details were available about how the American came to be in Kuwait when Iraqi troops invaded on Aug. 2, and American officials refused further comment until they can investigate it more fully.

A reliable source in Baghdad, however, said the victim’s name was on a list of half a dozen Americans taken from Kuwait to Iraq on Aug. 23. The list was compiled from eyewitness accounts and official sources in Kuwait and Iraq, the source said.