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Peter Kassig

Peter Edward Kassig (February 19, 1988 – c. November 16, 2014), also known as Abdul-Rahman Kassig, was an American aid worker who was beheaded by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.^[1][2]

Early life and education[edit]

Kassig was born and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana.^[3] As a child, he was adopted by Ed, a school teacher, and Paula Kassig, a nurse.^[4][5] Kassig attended North Central High School in Indianapolis, graduating in 2006. After his medical discharge from the Army in 2007, Kassig was a student at Hanover College from 2007 to 2009 and Butler University from 2011 to 2012.^[6][7][8]

Career[edit]

After graduating from high school, Kassig enlisted in the United States Army, becoming a U.S. Army Ranger, serving in the 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, a special operations unit, from June 2006 to September 2007. His service including training in Fort Benning, Georgia, and a four-month deployment to Iraq, from April to July 2007, when he received a medical discharge.^[6][9]

Kassig next worked in Syria and Lebanon as a humanitarian worker. He aided Syrian refugees through Special Emergency Response and Assistance (SERA),^[10]anon-governmental organization he founded in the Fall of 2012 to provide refugees in Syria and Lebanon with medical assistance, supplies, clothing, and food.^{[5][7][11][12]} Kassig was a trained medical assistant.^[13]

Kidnapping and death[edit]

On October 1, 2013, as he was on his way to Deir Ezzour in eastern Syria to deliver food and medical supplies to refugees, Kassig was taken captive by ISIL.^[7][14] He was kept in a cell with French journalist Nicolas Hénin and British journalist John Cantlie, and beaten regularly.^[12] While in captivity, Kassig – formerly a Methodist – converted to Islam and changed his name to Abdul-Rahman Kassig, sometime between October and December 2013.^[6][15] On October 3, 2014, his parents released a video in which they stressed that his conversion to Islam was not forced, and that his path to conversion began before he was taken captive.^[6]

Kassig was named as the next victim to be beheaded in the video released by ISIL on October 3, 2014, that showed Alan Henning's beheading.^[16] On October 3, his family sent a video message to the Islamic State, asking for mercy for their son.^[17] Kassig's mother later tweeted an entreaty to the leader of the Islamic State over Twitter, asking to communicate with him, and Kassig's parents maintained Facebook^[18] and Twitter^[19] accounts.^[20]

On November 16, 2014, ISIL posted a video showing "Jihadi John" standing over a severed human head.^[21] The beheading itself was not shown in the video. The White House later confirmed the person killed was Kassig.^[22] The Daily Telegraph and the security expert Will Geddes speculated that Kassig may have defied his captors, and refused to provide a beheading video statement.^[23] In an al-Qaeda magazine interview, spokesman Adam Yahiye Gadahn condemned the beheading.^[24]

On December 2, 2018, The US-led anti-ISIL Coalition killed Abu al-Umarayn, an ISIL leader involved in Kassig's beheading, in a drone strike in the Syrian Desert.^[25][26]

See also[edit]

Asia

• Killing of captives by ISIL
• Beheading in Islam

References[edit]