The Islamic State beheaded a Muslim convert and former U.S. Army Ranger who had traveled to Syria on a humanitarian mission, according to a purported video of the execution released Sunday.
The death of Abdul-Rahman Kassig, previously known as Peter, came weeks after the terrorist group said it would kill the young man because of U.S. bombing in Syria.
Standing over the young man’s severed head, a militant with a British accent says in the Islamic State video: “This is Peter Edward Kassig, a U.S. citizen of your country. Peter, who fought against the Muslims in Iraq while serving as a soldier under the American army, doesn’t have much to say.”
The video doesn’t depict the militant beheading Kassig.
The militant appears to be the same one who carried out the previous beheadings. U.S. and British authorities have identified the man but have not released any information about him to the public.
Kassig was detained Oct. 1, 2013 in eastern Syria while traveling in an ambulance.
Kassig, 26, is the fifth Western hostage to be killed by the Islamic State in a series of gruesome videos. The latest video was the longest in length, running more than 15 minutes and showed other men, apparently Syrian government soldiers, being decapitated.
Kassig was detained Oct. 1, 2013 in eastern Syria while traveling in an ambulance.
His family said Kassig, who was raised in Indiana, converted to Islam last year while sharing a cell with a devout Syrian Muslim. The family said the conversion process started before he taken hostage.
Kassig’s family had appealed to the Islamic State not to kill their son but to no avail. The family has also has tried to sway the group with its repeated statements about his Islamic conversion.
Before he was killed, Kassig’s family released a letter he had written earlier this year that a released hostage carried out. The family also received an audio recording of their son before the Islamic State revealed it was holding him hostage.
“I am obviously pretty scared to die but the hardest part is not knowing, wondering, hoping, and wondering if I should even hope at all,” Kassig wrote. “I am very sad that all this has happened and for what all of you back home are going through. If I do die, I figure that at least you and I can seek refuge and comfort in knowing that I went out as a result of trying to alleviate suffering and helping those in need.”
The Islamic State is also holding a 26-year-old American woman and another woman. The American woman was kidnapped while doing humanitarian work in Syria.
Her family and the FBI have asked that her name not be released for fear of putting her in greater danger.
In addition to two British aid works, the Islamic State has also killed journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff.
Kassig traveled to Lebanon while on spring break at Butler University in March 2012 to work as a volunteer emergency medical technician. Then several months later, he founded, SERA (Special Emergency Response and Assistance), a non-governmental organization.
In the summer of 2013 he moved its base of operations to Gaziantep, Turkey.
Kassig enlisted as an infantryman, and was in the Army from June 2006 to September 2007 before being medically discharged as a private first class, Army officials aid.
He was with the Army’s famous 75th Ranger Regiment from October 2006 to September 2007, and deployed with them to Iraq from April to July 2007.
While other countries have paid ransoms to free their citizens, U.S. government and British have steadfastly refused to alter its policy.
“They tell us you have abandoned us and/or don’t care but of course we know you are doing everything you can and more,” Kassig wrote in the letter his family released.
In a recent video, one of the hostages still being held, British journalist John Cantlie, said the terrorist group had started capturing Westerners entering Syria in 2013.
Cantlie said that the Islamic State had freed 16 people from six European countries after their governments had negotiated for their release.
Cantlie also revealed said the Islamic State had killed a Russian man.
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