Peter Kassig

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Peter Kassig ( after his conversion to Islam: Abdul-Rahman Kassig ; * February 1988 in Indianapolis ; † 2014 near Dabiq , Syria ) was an American medical disaster relief worker and former US soldier in the 75th Ranger Regiment . At the age of 26, he was beheaded by the jihadist-Salafist terrorist organization Islamic State in November 2014 .

Life

Peter Kassig came from Indianapolis in the US state Indiana . After graduating from high school in 2006, he volunteered in the US Army , where he later joined the special unit of the 75th Ranger Regiment . Kassig was then used with the elite Rangers troop in 2007 in Iraq.

During his army service he was trained as an Emergency Medical Technician . After he had to quit his service for medical reasons, he studied political science from 2011 to 2013 at Butler University in Indianapolis.

In May 2012, Kassig visited the city of Beirut in Lebanon and realized that humanitarian aid was needed there because of the war in Syria . From then on, Kassig became a civilian helper who participated in various aid projects for Syria , mainly in the medical field. He founded an aid organization for the victims and refugees of the Syrian and northern Iraqi civil war called "SERA" (Special Emergency Response and Assistance) , which mostly carried out relief operations for medical training and treatment.

Journalist Joshua Hersh wrote about his last meeting with Kassig in a café in Beirut in September 2013 for The New Yorker magazine that he was delving deeper into the depths of the war, while everyone else tended to withdraw.

On October 1, 2013, Kassig was kidnapped in Dair as-Saur in eastern Syria. The parents of Peter Kassig pointed out in a video that he was active in Syria for humanitarian reasons and pleaded for their son to be released. “We implore those who are holding you to show mercy and use their power to let you go,” said Peter Kassig's mother, Paula Kassig. The former Methodist converted to Islam while in captivity and has called himself Abdul-Rahman Kassig ever since.

assassination

In a video published on November 16, 2014 on Islamist websites, which also showed the beheading of 22 Syrian soldiers, a masked man claimed to have murdered Peter Kassig. A severed head was seen next to the alleged perpetrator Jihadi John . The IS named the city of Dabiq near Aleppo as the location of the crime . Shortly afterwards, the US confirmed the beheading video as real.

Kassig was last seen at the end of an IS video in which the decapitation of the British Alan Henning was shown. The IS had previously murdered the two American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff as well as the British David Haines .

Since Kassig's beheading differed greatly from the portrayals in the previous execution videos, terror experts suspected that he might have refused to participate in the usual staging and, for example, did not want to make his own statement in front of the camera. On November 18, reports also surfaced that the American was said to have been killed in an anti-IS coalition air strike on Tall Abyad on November 5 . However, this information could not be confirmed by independent bodies.

Reactions

"I am appalled by the cold-blooded murder of Abdul-Rahman Kassig," said British Prime Minister David Cameron via Twitter.

US National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said US intelligence agencies would clarify whether the video was real. "If the information is confirmed, we are shocked by the brutal murder of an innocent American aid worker and we express our deepest condolences to his family and friends."

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Friends: Indiana aid worker captured by ISIS in Syria felt help he could offer outweighed safety risks
  2. ↑ What can we learn from the Isil video of Peter Kassig's murder?
  3. ↑ a b USA confirm authenticity of the decapitation video
  4. ↑ Peter Kassig beheading video labeled act of 'pure evil' by President Obama
  5. ↑ Indiana leaders react to Kassig's execution ( memento of the original from November 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.wthr.com
  6. ↑ Remembering Peter Kassig: 'His empathy and warmth were obvious' ( Memento of the original from November 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.mcclatchydc.com
  7. ↑ a b Peter Kassig, a believer in 'hopeless' humanitarian causes
  8. ↑ Terrorist militia IS is said to have beheaded the US citizen Peter Kassig
  9. ^ Peter Kassig's family pleads for release of Islamic State hostage
  10. ↑ IS murders another hostage ( memento from November 18, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  11. ↑ Peter Kassig may have defied captors over beheading video statement
  12. ↑ IS hostage Kassig is said to have already been dead
  13. ↑ IS publishes new decapitation video
personal data
SURNAME Kassig, Peter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kassig, Abdul-Rahman
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American development worker
DATE OF BIRTH February 1988
PLACE OF BIRTH Indianapolis
DATE OF DEATH 2014
Place of death near Dabiq , Syria