William R. Higgins - Capture and Murder

Capture and Murder

On February 17, 1988, Higgins disappeared while serving as the Chief, Observer Group Lebanon and Senior Military Observer, United Nations Military Observer Group, United Nations Truce Supervision Organization. Higgins was driving alone on the coastal highway between Tyre and Naqoura in southern Lebanon, returning from a meeting with a local leader of the Amal movement, when he was pulled from his vehicle by armed men. He had been abducted by the Lebanese Hezbollah. During his captivity, he was interrogated and tortured.

As a reaction to his abduction, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 618, demanding his release. A year and a half after his abduction, images of his body, hung by the neck, were televised around the world — from a videotape released by his captors. The exact date of Colonel Higgins' murder is uncertain; he was declared dead on July 6, 1990. Finally, on 23 December 1991, his remains were recovered by the late Major Jens Nielsen (Royal Danish Army) attached to the United Nations Observer Group Beirut. His remains had been "...dumped beside a mosque near a south Beirut hospital." He was interred at Quantico National Cemetery on December 30, 1991.