ISIS claims to have beheaded US hostage
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Islamic State claimed in a video posted on the internet on Sunday that it had beheaded Peter Kassig, a US aid worker kidnapped in Syria last year.
The footage also showed what appeared to be the mass beheading of several captured Syrian soldiers.
There was no independent verification of the video.
The hostage changed his name to Abdul-Rahman Kassig upon converting to Islam in captivity. The 26-year-old charity worker from Indiana was taken hostage in October 2013 while on his way to Deir Ezzour in eastern Syria.
He would be the fifth western hostage to be murdered by ISIS since a US-led coalition began air strikes in Iraq in August and in Syria in September.
The video did not show the beheading of Kassig but a masked man standing with a decapitated head covered in blood lying at his feet. A man speaking in English with a British accent says: "This is Peter Edward Kassig, a US citizen.”
The video appeared after reports emerged that “Jihadi John”, the militant believed to have carried out the executions of the hostages in Syria, may have been killed or injured in air strikes overnight.
Kassig appeared in a video released in October that showed the beheading of Alan Henning, a British aid worker, as well as an ISIS militant who threatened to kill Kassig.
His family then released a letter from him. “Mentally I am pretty sure this is the hardest thing a man can go through, the stress and fear are incredible but I am coping as best I can. I am not alone.”
Earlier on Sunday, David Cameron, British prime minister, declined to comment on the reports about Jihadi John.
“You should be in no doubt that I want Jihadi John to face justice for the appalling acts that have been carried out in Syria, but I wouldn’t make any comment on individual issues and strikes,” he said.
Kassig enlisted in the US army in 2004, according to his army records obtained by the AP, and became a ranger. He was deployed to Iraq in 2007, according to an interview gave to Time magazine.
The footage also showed what appeared to be the mass beheading of several captured Syrian soldiers.
There was no independent verification of the video.
The hostage changed his name to Abdul-Rahman Kassig upon converting to Islam in captivity. The 26-year-old charity worker from Indiana was taken hostage in October 2013 while on his way to Deir Ezzour in eastern Syria.
He would be the fifth western hostage to be murdered by ISIS since a US-led coalition began air strikes in Iraq in August and in Syria in September.
The video did not show the beheading of Kassig but a masked man standing with a decapitated head covered in blood lying at his feet. A man speaking in English with a British accent says: "This is Peter Edward Kassig, a US citizen.”
The video appeared after reports emerged that “Jihadi John”, the militant believed to have carried out the executions of the hostages in Syria, may have been killed or injured in air strikes overnight.
Kassig appeared in a video released in October that showed the beheading of Alan Henning, a British aid worker, as well as an ISIS militant who threatened to kill Kassig.
His family then released a letter from him. “Mentally I am pretty sure this is the hardest thing a man can go through, the stress and fear are incredible but I am coping as best I can. I am not alone.”
Earlier on Sunday, David Cameron, British prime minister, declined to comment on the reports about Jihadi John.
“You should be in no doubt that I want Jihadi John to face justice for the appalling acts that have been carried out in Syria, but I wouldn’t make any comment on individual issues and strikes,” he said.
Kassig enlisted in the US army in 2004, according to his army records obtained by the AP, and became a ranger. He was deployed to Iraq in 2007, according to an interview gave to Time magazine.