IMAN Chairman condemns brutal execution of Peter Kassig and 15 Soldiers
Monday, 17 November 2014
Obama calls hostage's beheading by ISIS 'pure evil'
CNN
American aid worker and former soldier Peter Kassig was beheaded by ISIS terrorists, the White House confirmed Sunday, hours after a video claiming to show the victim surfaced online.
ISIS held Kassig as a hostage and in previous communications had threatened his life.
President Barack Obama confirmed the 26-year-old's beheading, saying Kassig "was taken from us in an act of pure evil by a terrorist group that the world rightly associates with inhumanity."
Kassig, who converted to Islam in captivity, also went by the name Abdul-Rahman Kassig.
He first traveled to the Middle East as a U.S. soldier and returned as a medical worker, feeling compelled to help victims of war.
He did aid work in Syria, where he was captured. He was held hostage for over a year.
"We are heartbroken to learn that our son, Abdul-Rahman Peter Kassig, has lost his life as a result of his love for the Syrian people and his desire to ease their suffering," Kassig's parents, Ed and Paula, said in a statement.
The parents released a previously unpublished audio recording of their son, recorded by a journalist before Kassig was taken captive.
"You know we would have a chance here to make up for a lot wrong that we did in this part of the world if we stepped in, in the right way," Peter Kassig says in the recording. "If we just as a country did what other people helped me to do in that hospital. How much did I impact the political situation inside Syria? None. How much did I impact the political situation back home? None. But what I did do is that over period of time in that hospital I was able to share a little bit of hope and comfort with some people."
The Kassig family expressed heartbreak over the beheadings of the other Westerners who came before their son, and asked for prayers for the safe return of other captives.
"While ISIL revels in the slaughter of innocents, including Muslims, and is bent only on sowing death and destruction, Abdul-Rahman was a humanitarian who worked to save the lives of Syrians injured and dispossessed by the Syrian conflict," Obama said.
A familiar figure appeared in Sunday's beheading video, dressed in all black and speaking with what sounds like an English accent.
A man fitting the same description appeared in previous videos of the apparent beheadings of other Westerners.
But this recording is different from previously released ones. It is longer, almost 16 minutes, and does not include a statement by the victim, as previous ones had.
And it is utterly brutal, showing in graphic detail the beheadings of other men, whom militants claim are pilots for the Syrian government.
The narration spends much time on ISIS' history and the figure taunts Obama, saying he will have to return troops to Iraq in greater numbers than before.
And for the first time in such a video, the speaker names the place where he is standing with the victim -- in the town of Dabiq in Aleppo province, Syria.
Kassig is the fifth Westerner whom ISIS claims to have beheaded via video messages.
The first was U.S. journalist James Foley. A video of his killing was posted online in mid-August, just over a week after Obama approved "targeted airstrikes" against ISIS.
In early September, ISIS released a video showing the beheading of U.S. journalist Steven Sotloff. Sotloff's apparent killer spoke in what sounded like the same British accent as the man who purportedly killed Foley.
Less than two weeks later, ISIS announced in a video the apparent killing of British aid worker David Haines.
And on October 3, ISIS released a video showing the apparent beheading of hostage Alan Henning.
Secretary of State John Kerry praised Kassig's compassion and reiterated the goal of defeating ISIS.
"This was a young man who traveled to one of the world's most dangerous places to care for the innocent victims of a bloody conflict, and fearlessly dedicated himself to helping those in need," Kerry said. "There can be no greater contrast than that between Abdul-Rahman's generosity of spirit and the pernicious evil of ISIL."
Kassig's life was threatened on the video that showed Henning's killing.
A week after its release, Kassig's family released a YouTube video of their own, asking his captors to show mercy and free him.
Kassig's mother, Paula, addressed her son in the video. "We are so very proud of you and the work you have done to bring humanitarian aid to the Syrian people," she said.
The couple noted they were releasing the video on the day of Islam's Eid al-Adha, or the Festival of Sacrifice, when Muslims slaughter lambs, goats, sheep and cattle and distribute the meat to the poor and their families.
A native of Indiana, Peter Kassig founded Special Emergency Response and Assistance, a nongovernmental organization aiding Syrians fleeing the civil war there.
From 2012, he delivered food and medical supplies within and outside Syria and provided trauma care and training, his family said.
Kassig's journey began when he joined the U.S. Army Rangers in 2006 and deployed to Iraq in 2007. He was honorably discharged for medical reasons after a brief tour and returned to the United States to study political science and train for 1,500-meter races. But something wasn't right.
"I was going to school with kids who look the same, were the same age as me, but we weren't the same," he said in an interview with CNN in 2012. "I wanted more of a challenge, a sense of purpose."
In 2010, Kassig took time off and began his certification as an emergency medical technician.
In the two years that followed, he fell in love, got married and quickly divorced. Devastated and heartbroken, he went back to school, but he couldn't shake his depression.
"I needed a game changer," he said.
He eventually traveled to Lebanon and founded SERA to deliver food and medical supplies to swelling refugee camps.
On October 1, 2013, he was "detained" on his way to Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria, his family said.
"Peter really believed that an individual can make a difference in the world through their love and compassion and intelligence," said Margaret Brabant, Kassig's college adviser and a professor at Butler Univeristy in Indianapolis. "... That is the message that I think Peter would want me to convey."
Isis video appears to show hostage Peter Kassig has been killed
THE GUARDIAN
Islamic State (Isis) has released a video appearing to show the British terrorist known as “Jihadi John” standing over the severed head of US aid worker Peter Kassig.
Kassig is the latest of five US and UK hostages to have been murdered in cold blood in Syria as part of a propaganda initiative by Isis.
The footage also showed what appeared to be the mass beheading of several captured Syrian soldiers.
The British prime minister, David Cameron, said: “These beheadings show once again what a depraved organisation this is,” and described Kassig as a “selfless humanitarian worker”.
The White House said the US intelligence community was working to determine the authenticity of the video. National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said that if the video was authentic, the White House would be “appalled by the brutal murder of an innocent American”. She said the White House expressed its deepest condolences to Kassig’s family and friends.
Kassig’s parents released a statement asking for their son to be “remembered for his important work” and said they were waiting for the authenticity of the video to be confirmed.
At the end of the 15-minute, 53-second video released by al-Furqan media on Sunday morning, a man who looks and sounds like the British combatant the Mail on Sunday claims was injured in a recent US air strike stands over what appears to be Kassig’s severed head.
The militant appears to be uninjured and is dressed in the same clothes as in previous videos – full black robe, leather knife belt and balaclava-style mask over his face showing only his eyes.
Speaking to the camera, he says: “This is Peter Edward Kassig, a US citizen of your country. Peter, who fought against the Muslims in Iraq whilst serving as a soldier in the American army, doesn’t have much to say. His previous cellmates have already spoken on his behalf.
“But we say to you, Obama … you claim to have withdrawn from Iraq four years ago. We said to you then that you were liars, that you had not withdrawn. And that if you had withdrawn you would return even after some time – you would return.”
He adds: “Your forces will return greater in number than they were before. We also remind you of the haunting words of our Sheikh Abu Musab al-Zarqawi told you. The spark has been lit here in Iraq and its heat will continue to intensify by Allah’s permission until it burns the crusader army.”
He said Isis would “bury” American soldiers under Syrian soil.
It was not immediately possible to confirm that the man pictured in the video was Kassig.
In one of the most gruesome and horrifying scenes to be officially published by Isis media outlets, the British terrorist is also seen leading Isis fighters in a mass beheading of men claimed to be combatants loyal to the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad.
Dressed in desert camouflage, Isis soldiers are shown collecting hunting knives from a box and leading out their prisoners, whose hands are bound with plastic ties. All are dressed in black trousers and shirts.
While over a dozen Isis jihadis, who appear to be from a mix of heritages, stand over the unarmed prisoners, the man who appears to be the so-called “Jihadi John” makes an address to the US president, as in previous videos.
“To Obama, the dog of Rome, today we are slaughtering the soldiers of Bashar and tomorrow we’ll be slaughtering your soldiers. With Allah’s permission we will break this final and last crusade and the Islamic State will soon like your puppet David Cameron said begin to slaughter your people on your streets.”
The men are then beheaded, the film-makers employing slow motion, multiple camera angles and sound effects to achieve maximum horror.
Entitled “Although the disbelievers like it”, the film also gives a three-minute potted history of Islamic State since the invasion of Iraq by western allies in 2003 and celebrates recent pledges of allegiance from jihadi fighters from Libya, the Sinai, Algeria and Yemen, claiming that the era of division among jihadi fighters was over.
The British militant claims the beheadings were carried out in Dabiq, a town north of Aleppo and about 15 miles (25km) from the Turkish border, which many Isis fighters believe will be the scene of an apocalyptic showdown that will hasten the end of days.
Kassig’s family said on Sunday: “The family respectfully asks that the news media avoid playing into the hostage-takers’ hands and refrain from publishing or broadcasting photographs or video distributed by the hostage-takers. We prefer our son is written about and remembered for his important work and the love he shared with friends and family, not in the manner the hostage-takers would use to manipulate Americans and further their cause.”
Kassig, a 26-year-old charity worker from Indiana, was taken hostage on 1 October 2013 while on his way to Deir Ezzour in eastern Syria as part of his humanitarian work.
He changed his name to Abdul-Rahman Kassig upon converting to Islam in captivity.
There was a media blackout around his kidnapping until he appeared in a video in October that showed the beheading of British aid worker Alan Henning. In that video, an Isis militant threatened to kill Kassig, which prompted his family to go public.
Kassig’s family released a letter from him in October, which read in part: “Mentally I am pretty sure this is the hardest thing a man can go through, the stress and fear are incredible but I am coping as best I can. I am not alone.”
Kassig enlisted in the US army in 2004, according to his military records obtained by the Associated Press, and became a ranger.
He was deployed to Iraq in 2007, according to an interview he gave to Time magazine. Kassig was honourably discharged from the army for medical reasons, his family said. He attended Butler University in Indianapolis between 2011 and 2013 to study political science and government, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Kassig went to Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, in spring 2012. “I was interested in what I could learn about the Syrian crisis first-hand and what I could do to help and raise awareness about the crisis amongst my peers back at home in the United States,” he told Time. He had been taking an entry-level Arabic course there.
He described his travels throughout Lebanon, particularly his experiences volunteering “on a small scale” in a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Beirut, as well as in a hospital in Tripoli, Lebanon, “offering my services as a trauma medic to Syrian refugees who have been wounded in the fighting in Syria”.
In 2012, he founded Special Emergency and Response and Assistance (Sera), a “medically oriented emergency relief organisation” serving the internally displaced and refugees. The organisation was focused on the civil war in Syria.
Sera, a small operation, focused on “non-material aid and assistance”, which largely meant providing medical training, coordinating relief for “high-risk” medical cases and coordinating the delivery of medical supplies to children and civilians to field camps, refugee camps and hospitals in Lebanon and Syria.
Photographs on the organisation’s website show Kassig providing training and medical treatment.
Kassig’s family said he was undertaking a project for Sera when he was captured.
Cameron said: “Like others who have been murdered in cold blood by Isil, Abdul-Rahman Kassig was a selfless humanitarian worker who had gone to the region to help care for those fleeing the Syrian conflict. This underlines the deplorable depths to which these terrorists are prepared to go – savagely murdering a compassionate man. My heart goes out tonight to Abdul-Rahman’s family.”
Earlier, Cameron declined to comment on reports suggesting the British Jihadi believed to be responsible for executing hostages in Syria had been injured or even killed in allied air strikes.
“You should be in no doubt that I want Jihadi John to face justice for the appalling acts that have been carried out in Syria, but I wouldn’t make any comment on individual issues and strikes,” Cameron said.
“If people travel to Syria or Iraq in order to conduct terror operations against British people or British citizens, and people back in Britain, they are putting themselves in harm’s way and they should not be in any doubt that.”
The British Foreign Office said: “We are aware of reports and we cannot confirm these reports.”
ISIS terrorists release horrific video of 15 soldiers being led to their deaths
THE MIRROR
Barbaric Islamic State terrorists have released an horrific video of captured soldiers being led to their deaths.
The 15 soldiers in dark overalls kneel in front of IS militants and, one by one, large knives are taken out of a box.
The beheadings are off camera but over a dozen decapitated heads are left on the ground by the bodies.
Footage also showed Peter Kassig, 26, captured last year while providing aid to Syrian people, wearing an orange jumpsuit and kneeling in front a knife-wielding hooded man.
The killer, who had a London accent and is known as Jihadi John, said Muslim extremists would kill other US citizens “on your street”.
Mr Kassig’s severed head is shown on the desert ground.
As the troops, thought to be loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, are killed a masked man says to the camera: “To Obama, the dog of Rome, we are slaughtering the soldiers of Bashar and tomorrow we will be slaughtering your soldiers.”
Prime Minister David Cameron described the killing of Kassig, who converted to Islam in captivity and changed his name to Abdul-Rahman, as “cold blooded murder”.
Kassig’s parents Ed and Paula said in a statement: “We prefer our son is written about and remembered for his important work and the love he shared with friends and family, not in the manner the hostage takers would use to manipulate Americans and further their cause.”
Meanwhile, fears have emerged that IS has at least 200,000 fighters, not up to 31,500 as previously estimated, and rule a third of Iraq and a third of Syria.
General Lord Dannatt, a former head of the Army, said British combat troops may have to fight in Iraq and Syria to wipe out IS.
Majid Freeman, a charity worker, who spoke at last month’s memorial service for beheaded Alan Henning, was claimed to have posted comments on social media apparently justifying the actions of IS terrorists.
Responding to the news, IMAN Chairman, Ribal Al-Assad said:
"I am completely appalled and horrified to learn of the tragic deaths of Peter Kassig and the 15 other soldiers who where executed in cold blood.
This was a brutal act which exemplifies all that is wrong with Islamic extremism - these terrorists have absolutely no concept of humanity; they are blind to the principle of the sanctity of life.
How many more executions do we have to witness before something is done to combat these animals?
It is high time that the international community puts aside its differences and comes together to combat this problem.
My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families at this time."
