Thaer Hussein Othman, 28, who was buried Tuesday after his body was transfered from Syria to Lebanon, "did not die because of the events in Iraq, but from pneumonia," Ambassador Ole Woehlers told AFP.

Othman "went to Damascus on March 20 and fell ill five days later. He was hospitalized and died on March 29 from pneumonia," Woehlers said.

Woehlers added that Othman "had not been to Iraq recently," and that his Danish passport, issued three years ago, "has no Iraqi visa."

However, when questioned Othman's relatives in Beirut stood by their version of events. They said Othman was seriously injured last week while on the road from the Syrian border to Baghdad, when fire from a US Apache helicopter hit the bus he was in.

Othman died of his wounds in an ambulance in Iraq, his family said, and his body was taken to Damascus. It was then transfered to the Burj al-Barajneh Palestinian refugee camp, in a Beirut suburb, for the funeral.

Born in Burj al-Barajneh, Othman emigrated to Denmark in 1987, where he lived with his wife and three-year-old son. He had no political affiliations, his family said.

SPACE.WIRE