Peter Kassig's parents plea for ISIS to release U.S. aid worker
Ed and Paula Kassig release video message day after beheading of British aid worker
The parents of an Indiana man threatened with beheading by the Islamic State group are pleading with his captors to free him, saying in a video statement Saturday that their son has devoted his life to humanitarian work and aiding Syria's war refugees.
Ed and Paula Kassig's video was released a day after the Islamic State group's online video threatened to behead 26-year-old Peter Kassig next — following the beheading of British aid worker Alan Henning.
U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron said Henning's slaying demonstrates the necessity of destroying the Islamic State extremist group, calling the video repulsive and beyond reason.
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In the family's video, Ed Kassig says his son, who now goes by the first name Abdul-Rahman after converting to Islam during his captivity, was captured on Oct. 1, 2013, in Syria, where he was providing aid for refugees fleeing that country's civil war.
He says his son has grown "to love and admire" the Syrian people, after growing up in an Indianapolis family with a long history of humanitarian work and teaching.
Provided aid to Syrian refugees
"Our son was living his life according to that same humanitarian call when he was taken captive," says Ed Kassig, a teacher.
The family says Kassig, a 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.
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His work in Lebanon led to his capture, after which SERA suspended its aid efforts.
"Most of all, know that we love you, and our hearts ache for you to be granted your freedom so we can hug you again and then set you free to continue the life you have chosen, the life of service to those in greatest need," she says. "We implore those who are holding you to show mercy and use their power to let you go."
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 father of another hostage being held by ISIS, British war photographer John Cantlie, has also released a video pleading for his son's life. Paul Cantlie, who is sick, recorded the message from a hospital bed.
"Obama, you have started your aerial bombard of Shams [Syria], which keep on striking our people, so it is only right that we strike the next of your people," a masked militant said in the video of Henning's beheading.
U.S. President Barack Obama condemned the "brutal murder" of Henning, and said the U.S. will work with U.K. allies "to bring the perpetrators of Alan's murder — as well as the murders of Jim Foley, Steven Sotloff and David Haines — to justice."
This is the fourth such video released by the Islamic State group. The full beheadings are not shown in the videos, but the British-accented, English-speaking militant holds a long knife and appears to begin cutting the men.
Previous victims included American reporter James Foley, American-Israeli journalist Steven Sotloff and British aid worker David Haines.
FBI Director James Comey says American officials believe they know the identity of the masked militant, who speaks in a London accent. Comey has declined to name the man or reveal his nationality.