Another U.S. Hostage Is Freed -- Alann Steen Released Today, Leaving Terry Anderson As Only American Captive

DAMASCUS, Syria - American Alann Steen was released by his Muslim kidnappers today after five years of captivity in Lebanon and said: "It's great to be out."

The 52-year-old teacher was the second hostage released in two days. There was growing speculation that the last American captive, journalist Terry Anderson, will soon walk free.

Steen wept as he was handed over to U.S. Ambassador Christopher Ross at the Syrian Foreign Ministry, and appeared to seek guidance from United Nations and U.S. officials as he spoke to reporters.

"I don't think I can find the words right now to express how I feel, except that it's wonderful," he said, his voice choking with emotion and his hands shaking. "Five years is no fun."

Steen appeared thin and pale but relatively fit, and said he exercised for two hours every day while in captivity. He was clean-shaven.

Steen is the eighth Western hostage released since August, when the United Nations began intensive negotiations to arrange a swap of Western hostages for hundreds of 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.

Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani is seeking to end Iran's isolation and shed its image as an outlaw state that supports terrorism. The Syrians, once the vanguard of Arab radicalism and a longtime Soviet ally, are realigning with the West after the collapse of communism.

American Joseph Cicippio and Steen were freed after Washington paid Iran $278 million for weaponry impounded during the 1979-80 Tehran hostage crisis.

On Sunday, Israel released 25 Arab prisoners, bringing to 91 the total number set free since August and giving new impetus to hostage releases.

Earlier today, the Beirut office of Iran's official news agency said Anderson, 44, the Associated Press chief Middle East correspondent who was seized in March 1985 and is the longest-held U.S. hostage, could be freed this week.

Also today, Uri Lubrani, Israel's chief hostage negotiator, was quoted as saying progress was being made on missing Israeli servicemen. He told the daily Haaretz that Israel expects to receive information "in the very near future" on Ron Arad, an air force navigator shot down over Lebanon in 1986. He is the one missing soldier Israel believes is almost certainly alive.

Besides Anderson, two Germans, Thomas Kemptner and Heinrich Struebig, are still held. An Italian is missing, but reports say he is dead.

Steen, a native of Boston, was an editor at the Arcata (Calif.) Union before becoming a journalism teacher, off and on, between 1970 and 1981 at Humboldt State University and at California State University at Chico in 1981-1983. In 1983, he joined Beirut University College as a communications instructor.

Steen was abducted along with three other Beirut University College teachers. The three others were freed earlier.

Steen's wife, Virginia, was an instructor of fine arts and interior design at Beirut University College and witnessed her husband's kidnapping. In 1989 she moved back to her hometown, Clark Lake, Mich.

CICIPPIO GIVEN MEDICAL CHECKS

WIESBADEN, Germany - Joseph Cicippio, who arrived in Germany last night after being freed by kidnapers in Lebanon, went through thorough medical checks yesterday.

Cicippio, 61, looked thin and tired when he emerged from more than five year's captivity. But his appetite was apparently undamaged by the ordeal.

Doctors found no urgent medical problems in a first exam on arrival but said he was scheduled for much-needed dental work.

SUTHERLAND ONCE THOUGHT OF SUICIDE

FORT COLLINS, Colo. - Thomas Sutherland yesterday said that he once tried to commit suicide during his early years as a hostage, but thoughts of his family gave him strength to resist the urge and endure his captivity.

Sutherland, released two weeks ago after 6 1/2 years in captivity, said he was so depressed early on during his captivity that he contemplated suicide. His captors, he said, almost "broke my spirit."

Chained to a wall, isolated and unaware of the continual efforts by family and hundreds of supporters to secure his release, Sutherland said he once put a plastic bag over his head to smother himself.

-- Compiled from Associated Press, Reuters and Scripps Howard News Service.