"Although we can't conform that he has been taken hostage, we can confirm that that he has been absent from his unit since June 21," Major Douglas Powell said.
Hassoun was attached to the First Marine Expeditionary Force, and his unit was operating west of Fallujah, Powell said.
Earlier, an armed Islamic group threatened to behead a US Marine it claims to have kidnapped unless the coalition released Iraqi prisoners from jails.
In a video broadcast by Al-Jazeera television the group, which called itself the "Islamic Retaliation Movement - Armed Resistance Wing," said it had abducted the marine of Pakistani origin and would execute him unless all detainees in US-led coalition prisons were freed.
Powell could not confirm that Hassoun was of Pakistani descent but said a lot of members of his extended family lived in Lebanon.
His family has been notified of his present status.
The spokesman also said the missing Marine was fluent in Arabic.
No other information was provided. – Sapa-AFP.
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