Frenchman seen in ISIS video of beheadings

LONDON/PARIS — A Frenchman is believed to have appeared in a video of Islamic State jihadists beheading Syrian soldiers but a British man denied earlier reports that his medical student son was there too.

The parents of an Indiana aid worker who was beheaded by Islamic State militants said Monday their hearts are battered by their son’s death but that they believe his life is proof “one person can make a difference.”

Ed and Paula Kassig of Indianapolis read a brief statement in their first public comments since learning Sunday that their 26-year-old son had been killed.

“In 26 years, he has witnessed and experienced firsthand more of the harsh realities of life than most of us can imagine,” Paula Kassig said of her son, Peter, who changed his first name to Abdul-Rahman after converting to Islam during captivity. “But rather than letting the darkness overwhelm him, he has chosen to believe in the good — in himself and in others.

“Peter’s life is evidence that he’s been right all along — one person can make a difference.”

Kassig, a former Army Ranger, was captured Oct. 1, 2013, while delivering aid in Syria through a relief organization he founded.

The Kassigs did not disclose his captivity while family and friends quietly worked to secure his release. In October, their son appeared in another video released by the Islamic State group that showed the beheading of a fellow aid worker, Britain’s Alan Henning. The militants vowed that Kassig would be next, leading his parents to plead publicly for mercy while stressing his humanitarian work and conversion to Islam.

The White House confirmed his death Sunday after the Islamic State group released a video displaying the severed head of Kassig,. The video also showed the beheadings of about a dozen men identified as Syrian military officers and pilots.

The Islamic State group has now killed five Westerners it was holding.

Kassig’s slaying has been widely denounced, with the Islamic Society of North America calling it “barbaric and un-Islamic.”

“It’s just mind-boggling, man’s inhumanity to man,” Indianapolis resident Maria Campbell said at Just Judy’s Restaurant, not far from the Kassig home.

“There are children over there that aren’t being helped today with skill sets that he had, there are moms that will lose their children because this was done by some other group,” she said.

His parents asked for prayers for peace at sunset Monday and requested “the time and privacy to mourn, cry — and yes, forgive — and begin to heal.”

A memorial service in the Muslim and Christian faiths was being planned for this weekend.

Islamic State, which is fighting in Iraq and Syria, includes thousands of foreign combatants and has become a magnet for jihadis from Europe and North America.

IS has released videos of the beheading of two American and two British men which feature a masked, black-clad militant brandishing a knife and speaking with an English accent, who has been dubbed “Jihadi John” by British media.

Sunday’s video showed all of the killers unmasked, with the exception of the black-clad militant, and the Daily Mail said the man who appeared to be Nasser Muthana was standing alongside Jihadi John. Muthana appeared in a video in June urging Muslims to join IS.