The video purportedly showing the severed head of American Peter Kassig, killed 'in an act of pure evil,' is authentic, U.S. President Barack Obama confirmed Sunday while offering his condolences to Kassig's family and friends.
U.S. intelligence agencies had previously received strong indications Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) forces had killed him.
'We offer our prayers and condolences to the parents and family of Abdul-Rahman Kassig, also known to us as Peter,' Obama said in a statement.
The video released Sunday purports to show extremists beheading a dozen Syrian soldiers and ends with a militant claiming to have killed Kassig and shows a severed head.
Kassig, an aid worker who previously served in the U.S. Army, had been missing more than a year after disappearing in Syria.
Kassig's family has previously said the former Army Ranger formed the aid organization Special Emergency Response and Assistance, or SERA, in Turkey to provide aid and assistance to Syrian refugees. He began delivering food and medical supplies to Syrian refugee camps in 2012 and is also a trained medical assistant who provided trauma care to injured Syrian civilians and helped train 150 civilians in providing medical aid.
His work in Lebanon led to his capture, after which SERA suspended its aid efforts.
The family says Kassig served in the Army from 2006 to 2007. He was a member of the 75th Ranger Regiment and served four months in Iraq in 2007 before being medically discharged at the rank of private first class in September of that year, his military record shows.
Kassig focused on humanitarian work after leaving the military. While attending Indianapolis' Butler University, he worked to help refugees from Burma, also known as Myanmar, who had resettled in central Indiana, said family spokeswoman Jodi Perras.
The video purportedly showing Kassig's beheading would be the fifth such video released by the Islamic State group. Previous victims included American reporter James Foley, American-Israeli journalist Steven Sotloff, British aid worker David Haines and British aid worker Alan Henning. Could not meet captors' demands
Kassig appeared in the Oct. 3 ISIS video of Henning's beheading. The militants vowed then that Kassig would be next.
Kassig's parents, Ed and Paula Kassig of Indianapolis, released a statement early Sunday through a family spokeswoman.
'We are aware of the news reports being circulated about our treasured son and are waiting for confirmation from the government as to the authenticity of these reports.' They said they would have no additional comment and requested privacy.
The release of the Oct. 3 video was heartbreaking for Kassig's family and friends, who had been silent for a year after his capture. Kassig converted to Islam and took the name Abdul-Rahman while in captivity, and his family spent the ensuing weeks pleading for his life and stressing his humanitarian work and conversion to Islam in rallies and interviews in Indiana and Lebanon. His mother also took to Twitter in hopes of contacting his captors directly.
His parents repeatedly said that they were unable to meet the demands made of them by Peter's captors, but they did not specify what those demands were. 'He felt a need to stay up all day and all night and continue to help because people were dying all the time. He thought that maybe if I can just pour a little more of myself into this we can save a few more lives.' - Joe Dages, Kassig's friend
Kassig's friends and family say he understood the risks involved of working in the region, but that he felt called to help.
Burhan Agha, a 26-year-old Syrian, used to work with Kassig in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, delivering aid to Syrian refugees before Kassig moved his operations to southern Turkey. Speaking by phone from Switzerland, where he is seeking asylum, Agha described his friend's killing as senseless.
'If I could apologize to each American, one by one, I would,' Agha said while weeping. 'Because Peter died in Syria, while he was helping the Syrian people. And those who killed him claimed to have done it in the name of Islam. I am a Muslim, and from Syria, and he is considered a part of the Syrian revolution.'
Joe Dages, a friend from Louisville, Kentucky, recently told the AP that it was clear how passionate Kassig was about his work when he last saw him in March 2013.
'He felt a need to stay up all day and all night and continue to help because people were dying all the time,' Dages said. 'He thought that maybe if I can just pour a little more of myself into this we can save a few more lives.'
The Syrian war has killed at least 200,000 people according to activists. It has also been an extremely deadly place for aid workers and reporters.
With files from The Associated Press
Post By http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/peter-kassig-isis-video-beheading-confirmed-by-u-s-1.2836869
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