IS claims it has beheaded another US hostage

Islamic State militants fighting in Iraq and Syria claimed in a video posted online on Sunday that it had beheaded American hostage Peter Kassig. The video did not show the beheading but showed a masked man standing with a decapitated head covered in blood lying at his feet. Speaking in English in a British accent, the man says: ‘This is Peter Edward Kassig, a US citizen.’ The footage appeared on a jihadist website and on Twitter feeds used by the IS. Kassig, a 26-year-old from Indiana, is also known as Abdul-Rahman, a name he took following his conversion to Islam while in captivity. Kassig’s parents have said through a spokesperson their son was taken captive on his way to the eastern Syrian city of Deir al-Zor on October 1, 2013. A former soldier, Kassig was doing humanitarian work through Special Emergency Response and Assistance, an organisation he founded in 2012 to help refugees from Syria, the family has said. If confirmed, Kassig’s beheading would be the fifth such killing of a Westerner by IS, following the deaths of two US journalists and two British aid workers, according to Reuters.