Syrian friends of Peter Kassig, the American held hostage by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, called Saturday for his release.
Kassig is a convert to Islam and was helping Syrians, his friends told reporters at a news conference in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli.
Dr. Ahmad Obeid, a friend of Kassig, said “our demand is to release him and to return to his family because as a person he helped us and we should ask for mercy for him,” according to the Associated Press.
“He is unfortunately detained so we are calling for his freedom because he supported our cause and we cannot leave him and let them hurt him,” he said.
The AP reports that another of his friends, Amjad al-Moghrabi, told reporters: “We are demanding the Islamic State to release him, if they know Islam. He is a Muslim and has not participated in what his country is doing.”
