Terry Anderson, AP reporter held hostage for nearly 7 years in Lebanon, dead at 76 WSOC TV [Video]

Terry Anderson, a Middle East correspondent for The Associated Press who was held hostage for nearly seven years in Lebanon during the 1980s, has died, the news organization announced on Sunday. He was 76.

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Anderson died in Greenwood Lake, New York, just north of the New Jersey border, his daughter, Sulome Anderson, told the AP. The cause of death was unknown, although his daughter said Anderson recently had undergone heart surgery.

Anderson was kidnapped on March 16, 1985, on a street in western Beirut by Islamic militants while covering the long-running civil war, according to History.com.

He was held captive for 2,454 days in an underground dungeon in Beirut’s southern suburbs before he was released on Dec. 4, 1991, according to the website.

Anderson said he was likely targeted for abduction because his role as a journalist aroused suspicion among members of Hezbollah in Lebanon, the AP reported.

“Because in their terms, people who go around …