The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) on Sunday claimed in a video that it has beheaded American hostage Peter Kassig, according to multiple reports.
{mosads}The 26-year-old former Army Ranger, who moved to the Middle East to provide humanitarian aid, was known as Abdul-Rahman Kassig after he converted to Islam.
U.S. intelligence officials are working to determine the video’s authenticity, National Security Council spokesperson Bernadette Meehan said in a statement.
“If confirmed, we are appalled by the brutal murder of an innocent American aid worker and we express our deepest condolences to his family and friends,” she added.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters returning with President Obama from his trip to Asia that National Security Adviser Susan Rice had briefed the president on the reports of Kassig’s murder.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Twitter that he was “horrified by the cold blooded murder of Abdul-Rahman Kassig.”
“ISIL have again shown their depravity,” he said, using an alternate acronym for the terror group. “My thoughts are with his family.”
The video’s release comes as America’s top military official arrived for a surprise in Iraq for the first time since the U.S. launched a campaign against the extremist group ISIS.
Army General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is visiting with U.S. troops on the ground as advisers to Iraqi forces. He reportedly met with Iraq’s prime minister.
ISIS, which captured Kassig on Oct. 1, 2013, threatened Kassig when they released a video of the beheading of British aid worker Alan Henning. ISIS reportedly gave the U.S. an October deadline to cease bombing the group, or Kassig would be killed.
Kassig’s parents in October released a letter from their son in which he said he was “pretty scared to die” but took comfort that he was trying to “alleviate suffering.”
“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 wrote.
“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,” he continued.
Kassig’s parents, Ed and Paula, had pleaded with ISIS to release their son.
“We implore his captors to show mercy and use their power to let our son go,” they each said in a video last month.
“We are aware of the news reports being circulated about our treasured son and are waiting for confirmation from the government as to the authenticity of these reports,” Kassig’s parents said in a statement early Sunday. “We will have no other statement at this time and ask that you please respect our privacy.”
“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,” the added
–This report was updated at 11:44 a.m.