British Teacher Found Shot to Death in Beirut

The body of a British teacher at the American University of Beirut, who had been shot several times in the head, was found near the waterfront and identified at the university’s hospital morgue today.

Colleagues said they had not seen Denis Hill, 53, since the weekend. They said Hill had taught English in an intensive language program at the university since last October.

An anonymous caller to a western news agency claimed the underground terrorist group, Islamic Jihad, had killed Hill and had kidnaped an American director of the university hospital, David Jacobsen, on Tuesday. (Story on Page 8.)

A university statement said Hill “had been shot several times in the head.”

The statement gave no further details, but police sources said the body of an unidentified man was taken to the American University Hospital morgue from the West Beirut waterfront Tuesday afternoon. The sources said the man was identified today as Hill.

Hill lived in an off-campus apartment in mostly Muslim West Beirut. The area is controlled by Shia and Druze Muslim militias.

Apartment Checked

“When he failed to show up for work on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, a fellow teacher got worried and went to check on him at his apartment,” said a colleague.

“He discovered that the key had been left with the concierge for several days and that the apartment had not been used,” the colleague said.

Gunmen have kidnaped more than a dozen Westerners in West Beirut in the last 14 months.

“One day a foreigner is grabbed in Beirut and the next someone is killed. And no one knows why,” said one university teacher.