American citizen Peter Edward Kassig is the latest hostage facing execution at the hands of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
Ed and Paula Kassig, his parents, confirmed in a statement Friday that Peter was being held hostage by the Islamic State, but offered no further details. They had maintained silence about his capture since it happened in 2013, according to CNN.
Kassig, 26, made an appearance at the end of the most recent Islamic State video Friday, which claimed to show the beheading of British aid worker Alan Henning. At the video’s conclusion, Kassig is identified before the masked terrorist threatens he will be next victim if the U.S.-led bombing campaign against the extremist group is not stopped.
Kassig enlisted in the U.S. Army in 2004. He joined the U.S. Army Rangers in 2006 and was deployed to Iraq in 2007. He was honorably discharged that same year and returned to the U.S. to return to school.
Something wasn’t quite right about being back in the U.S., Kassig told CNN in a 2012 interview. After getting certified as an emergency medical technician, he went through some rough times — marriage, divorce, a depressing return to school — before realizing he “needed a game changer.”
He helped in Beirut during his spring break, aiding those in need in the Lebanese capital while keeping an eye on the situation in Syria. Kassig then returned to school, finished his semester and returned to Lebanon with a more concrete plan to help those displaced by the Syrian civil war: SERA (Special Emergency Response and Assistance), a nongovernmental organization he founded.
“He was a very affable, jovial guy; he’s the type of guy you like to hang out with and have a few beers with,” Nick Schwellenbach told the Wall Street Journal about Kassig. “He didn’t just want to party and drink, he wanted…to get his hands dirty and help people.”
“We each get one life and that’s it. We get one shot at this and we don’t get any do-overs, and for me, it was time to put up or shut up,” Kassig said in a 2012 interview with CNN.
“I am not a doctor. I am not a nurse,” he said in the 2012 interview. “But I am a guy who can clean up bandages, help clean up patients, swap out bandages, help run IVs, make people’s quality of life a little bit better. This is something for me that has meaning, that has purpose.”
In summer 2013, he moved its base of operations to Gaziantep, Turkey. He was in the middle of a new SERA project when he was “detained” on Oct. 1, 2013 on his way to Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria, according to his family’s statement.
Kassig’s family said he converted to Islam while being held hostage and now goes by Abdul-Rahman.
The family said it “understands from speaking to former hostages that Kassig’s faith has provided him comfort during his long captivity.”
“People back home need to know about it, they need to know. Sometimes you gotta take a stand, you gotta draw a line somewhere,” he told CNN in 2012.
