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| Peter "Abdul-Rahman" Kassig,ISIS release video of his killing.. |
His family, who live in the US state of Indiana, said they were awaiting confirmation of the reports about their "treasured son" and had nothing more to say at this time.
This is perhaps the most elaborate and graphic of all the murder videos posted online by IS. Much of it is taken up with a recent history lesson on Iraq and Syria as seen through the eyes of the jihadists. But the latter part shows the beheading of Syrian prisoners in revolting, lingering detail.
Unlike earlier videos, this one revels in gore. Amongst the boiler-suited captives murdered in cold blood is a man IS says is the former US soldier Peter Kassig, who converted to Islam and changed his name to Abdul-Rahman.
Neither his conversion nor the fact that he was helping refugees when he was captured a year ago, appear to have saved him.
Mr Peter Kassig's murder is a sign of frustration that IS militants are unable to hit back at the coalition air strikes that have driven them off key sites like the Mosul and Haditha dams, and prevented them from seizing the town of Kobane.
The US National Security Council said the intelligence community was working as quickly as possible to determine the latest video's authenticity
"If confirmed, we are appalled by the brutal murder of an innocent American aid worker and we express our deepest condolences to his family and friends," NSC spokesperson Bernadette Meehan said.
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| A 2011 photograph of Paul Kassig fishing with his father Ed Kassig (AP/Handout) |
If his death is confirmed, the 26-year-old will be the fifth Western hostage to have been killed by IS, following the murders of British men Alan Henning and David Haines, and US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff.
One of the masked militants pictured in the video appears in size and dress to resemble so-called Jihadi John, a man believed be from Britain who carried out the killing of the four Western hostages.
The video emerged on the same day as an unconfirmed report in Britain's Mail on Sunday newspaper suggested he had been injured in a recent US-led air strike on a gathering of IS leaders.
The latest video did not show the person identified as Kassig being beheaded. Unlike previous videos, it did not show other Western captives or directly threaten to behead anyone else.
IS also holds British photojournalist John Cantlie, who has been shown in several videos delivering long statements on the group's behalf, perhaps under duress.
Mr Kassig's parents last month released extracts of a letter written by their son, in which he told of the strains of captivity.
"This is the hardest thing a man can go through, the stress and fear are incredible," the aid worker wrote.
"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.
"Don't worry Dad, if I do go down, I won't go thinking anything but what I know to be true. That you and mom love me more than the moon and the stars."
Mr Kassig was a former US Army Ranger who served in Iraq.
He later trained as an emergency medical technician, travelling to Lebanon in May 2012 to work in border hospitals treating Palestinian refugees and later those fleeing the Syrian conflict.
Later that year, he founded the Special Emergency Response and Assistance (Sera) organisation and subsequently moved its base of operations to southern Turkey, near the border with Syria.
Mr Kassig sourced and delivered supplies to camps on both sides of the Syrian border, and helped to treat civilian casualties and train medics inside Syria.
He was undertaking a project for Sera when he was captured in October 2013 while travelling to eastern Syria.
Meanwhile,David Cameron has said he is horrified by the cold-blooded murder of US hostage Peter Kassig after his apparent beheading was shown in an Islamic State propaganda video.
The British Prime Minister said militants from Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) had shown their depravity with the killing.
The horrific 15-minute-long video also threatens “slaughter” on Western streets after showing the beheading of a group of Syrian military prisoners.
Mr Cameron said: “I'm horrified by the cold-blooded murder of Abdul-Rahman Kassig. ISIL have again shown their depravity. My thoughts are with his family.”
Sir John Major, the former Conservative Prime Minister, described the latest murder as "13th-century barbarism".
He told BBC1's The Andrew Marr Show: "The people they are murdering, which makes it doubly worse, triply worse, are people who actually went there to help those in difficulty and in need.
"They are being murdered in the most brutal ways, almost beyond belief."
Sir John said Britain could not do much about the situation in Iraq and Syria alone, “but can we contribute to helping other people to do something about it - I think the answer is undoubtedly yes”
But Sir John, who was Prime Minister at the time of Britain’s involvement in the first Iraq War warned Arab nations should paly the leading role, or Western involvement would again be portrayed as a crusade.
He said: “Unless we want the old argument that the crusaders have come in to attack, we really need to support other Arabs on the ground and use our power in other ways to help them - surveillance, training, provide weapons and so forth - I think that is a proper role for us."
Source,The Telegraph and BBC News