Kassag says fears death at Islamic State hands

Washington: American hostage Peter Kassag, 26, wrote in June that he was “scared to die” at the hands of his IS jihadist captors, his parents have revealed. The former US soldier was paraded at the end of an IS video released on Friday that showed the murder of British aid worker Alan Henning.

Hostages threatened at the end of four previous, near-identical IS beheading videos have subsequently been murdered. Kassig’s letter referred to his conversion to Islam during captivity, which his parents Ed and Paula Kassig said took place voluntarily at some point between October and December 2013 when he shared a cell with a devout Syrian Muslim.

But they noted that Kassag had observed the holy fasting month of Ramadan in July-August 2013 before and “spoke of the great impact this spiritual practice.”