ISIS Captive Told His Parents He Feared Of Death

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — An Indiana aid worker threatened with beheading by the Islamic State group said in a June letter that he's afraid to die and is saddened by the pain his captivity must be causing his family, his parents said Sunday.

In a statement released to media, Ed and Paula Kassig said their 26-year-old son, Abdul-Rahman Kassig, thanked them for their strength and commitment. And he appeared to try to prepare them for his death.

"I am obviously pretty scared to die but the hardest part is not knowing, wondering, hoping, and wondering if I should even hope at all," Kassig said in the letter, according to his parents. "I am very sad that all this has happened and for what all of you back home are going through. If I do die, I figure that at least you and I can seek refuge and comfort in knowing that I went out as a result of trying to alleviate suffering and helping those in need."

Kassig was taken captive by the Islamic State group Oct. 1, 2013, in Syria, where he was providing aid for refugees fleeing that country's civil war.

The group said in a video after the beheading of British aid worker Alan Henning last week that Kassig would be next. The Kassigs pleaded for their son's freedom in a video statement released Saturday.

According to a former Islamic State hostage, Kassig voluntarily converted to Islam sometime between his capture and December 2013, the Kassigs said. He was known as Peter Kassig before his conversion.

The letter continues: "In terms of my faith, I pray every day and I am not angry about my situation in that sense. I am in a dogmatically complicated situation here, but I am at peace with my belief."

The Kassigs say the complication appears to arise from his conversion but that they see this "as part our son's long spiritual journey.

Ed and Paula Kassig's video was released a day after the Islamic State group's online video threatened to behead 26-year-old Peter Kassig next — following the beheading of British aid worker Alan Henning.

That video was a heartbreaking development for Kassig's family and friends, who had stayed silent since his capture while working to secure his release.

In the family's video, Ed Kassig said his son, who now goes by the first name Abdul-Rahman after converting to Islam during his captivity, was captured on Oct. 1, 2013, in Syria, where he was providing aid for refugees fleeing that country's civil war.

He said his son has grown "to love and admire" the Syrian people, after growing up in an Indianapolis family with a long history of humanitarian work and teaching.

"Our son was living his life according to that same humanitarian call when he was taken captive," said Ed Kassig, a teacher.

The family said Kassig, a former Army Ranger, formed the aid organization Special Emergency Response and Assistance, or SERA, in Turkey to provide aid and assistance to Syrian refugees. He began delivering food and medical supplies to Syrian refugee camps in 2012 and is also a trained medical assistant who provided trauma care to injured Syrian civilians and helped train 150 civilians in providing medical aid.

His work in Lebanon led to his capture, after which SERA suspended its aid efforts.

Paula Kassig, a nurse, sits next to her husband on a couch in the couple's three-minute video, wearing a head scarf and holding a photo of her son as she speaks directly to him.

"Most of all, know that we love you, and our hearts ache for you to be granted your freedom so we can hug you again and then set you free to continue the life you have chosen, the life of service to those in greatest need," she says. "We implore those who are holding you to show mercy and use their power to let you go."

The family says Kassig served in the Army from 2006 to 2007. He was a member of the 75th Ranger Regiment and served four months in Iraq in 2007 before being medically discharged at the rank of private first class in September of that year, his military record shows.

Kassig focused on humanitarian work after leaving the military. While attending Indianapolis' Butler University, he worked to help refugees from Myanmar who had resettled in central Indiana, said family spokeswoman Jodi Perras.