U.S. Aid Worker Peter Kassig Beheaded by the Islamic State, Remembered for His Dedication to the Syrian People

Peter Kassig, a U.S. aid worker and former U.S. Army Ranger, was beheaded by the Islamic State militants who captured him in Syria last year, Reuters reports. His death was confirmed by U.S. President Barack Obama after a chilling video was posted on Sunday showing a masked man standing above his decapitated head.

Kassig disappeared over a year ago at a checkpoint in northeastern Syria, as he traveled for an aid project to deliver medical supplies to the Syrian city of Deir Ezzor

“He was transferred late last year to a prison beneath the basement of the Children’s Hospital in Aleppo, and then to a network of jails in Raqqa, the capital of the extremist group’s self-declared caliphate, where he became one of at least 23 Western hostages held by the group,” the New York Times reports.

Kassig, an Indiana native who was deployed to Iraq in 2007, turned to humanitarian work in Syria after witnessing the immense suffering of the Syrian people.

In a letter to his parents, Kassig, the fifth Western hostage killed by ISIS, described his captivity:

“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.

“I can either be in a position to deliver tens of thousands of dollars of antibiotics for women and children, or I can be another young man with a gun,” he told Syria Deeply in 2013, as he was bringing aid to Syria.

Islamic State Responsible for War Crimes on a ‘Massive Scale,’ Says U.N. Report

“Islamic State commanders are liable for war crimes on a ‘massive scale’ in northeastern Syria, where they spread terror by beheading, stoning and shooting civilians and captured fighters,” said a U.N. report issued on Friday.

“ISIS has beheaded, shot and stoned men, women and children in public spaces in towns and villages across northeastern Syria,” according to the report, which was informed by first-hand victim accounts and materials distributed by the group.

It describes ISIS fighters blocking food aid and medicine delivery to local populations, the use of child soldiers in battle, and the raping and sexual enslavement of Yazidi women.

The reports adds that the “international community had underestimated the threat the group posed to regional stability, and that the failure to find a political solution to the Syrian crisis had ‘left a dangerous vacuum’ that was filled by the group,” the BBC reports.

The group is in control of nearly one-third of Syria.

The report was written by the U.N.’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, established in August 2011 to investigate human rights violations in Syria. It reiterated that other parties, including the Syrian government, were also responsible for human rights violations.

U.S. Administration Considering Plans to Escalate CIA role in Training Syrian Rebels

The U.S. administration is considering plans to escalate “the CIA’s role in arming and training fighters in Syria, a move aimed at accelerating U.S. support to moderate rebel factions while the Pentagon is preparing to establish its own training bases,” the Washington Post reports.

The prospect of expanding the CIA program that currently trains around 400 fighters every month could indicate concern about the pace of the Pentagon’s program to bolster moderate fighters, the paper writes.

Overall, the CIA is expected to train about 5,000 fighters a year – “rougly the same output as the Pentagon.”

“We need a little more urgency in helping the moderates, and the agency was viewed as the best way to get that going fast,” said a senior U.S. official.

Syrian rebel groups allied with the U.S. have faced numerous setbacks the past month, when they were routed by al-Qaida affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra from their strongholds in northern Syria.

Recommended Reads:

WSJ: Qatari Official Warns on U.S. Led Airstrikes in Syria

Washington Post: Syrian Refugees Face ‘New Level of Hopelessness as Border Controls Tighten

National: Blinded by Feuds, Syrian Southern Rebels Turn Guns on One Another

AP: West-Backed Syria Rebels Shaken on Multiple Fronts

USA Today: Child Soldiers Fight Against Islamic State in Syria

PBS: The Rise of ISIS

Bloomberg: French Jihadist Recruits in Syria and Iraq Fighting Double

NY Times: Obama Condemns Islamic State’s Killing of Peter Kassig