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Fight against Islamic state

Obama offers condolences to family of Peter Kassig killed by IS militants

Islamic State militants earlier issued a video in which they supposedly beheaded US aid worker Peter Kassig

Peter Kassig AP Photo/Courtesy Kassig Family

Peter Kassig

© AP Photo/Courtesy Kassig Family

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Islamic State militants behead 15 people — media

WASHINGTON, November 16. /TASS/. US President Barack Obama offered condolences to the family of a US citizen Peter Kassig killed by Islamic State (IS) militants. Obama confirmed that the released video claiming the killing of Peter Kassig was genuine.

“Today we offer our prayers and condolences to the parents and family of Abdul-Rahman Kassig, also known to us as Peter,” Mr. Obama’s statement said. According to Obama, “his life stands in stark contrast to everything that (IS) represents.”

"While ISIL (Islamic State was formerly known under the name of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) revels in the slaughter of innocents, including Muslims, and is bent only on sowing death and destruction, Abdul-Rahman was a humanitarian who worked to save the lives of Syrians injured and dispossessed by the Syrian conflict." The President noted that Kassig also worked in a refugee hospital in Lebanon.

“These were the selfless acts of an individual who cared deeply about the plight of the Syrian people,” Obama added.

Secretary of State John Kerry noted that Kassig’s mother asked captors to free her son.

“The fact that her appeal went unheeded is only further testament to the wicked inhumanity of the IS terrorists who have taken her son from her.”

According to The New York Times, in recent days American intelligence agencies received strong indications that the Islamic State had killed Mr. Kassig, but the president’s announcement was the first official confirmation of his death.

Earlier the press center of the White House announced that President Obama was informed about the video on his way back from the G20 summit in Brisbane.

In October, National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden confirmed that Kassig was being held by Islamic State militants.

On September 14, Islamic State militants killed British aid worker David Haines. They also beheaded two Americans, James Foley and Steven Sotloff. In late September, the Islamists killed Frenchman Herve Gourdel captured in Algeria. He was kidnapped by militants of an IS-inspired local armed group calling itself Jund al-Khilafah.

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Barack Obama John Kerry United States Fight against terrorism Islamic State

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