Indiana family pleads for son's life after ISIS threat

The parents of an Indiana man threatened with beheading by the Islamic State group are pleading with their son's captors to free him.

Ed and Paula Kassig released a video message Saturday, a day after a video from the Islamic State group threatened to behead 26-year-old Peter Kassig, a former Army Ranger grew up in an Indianapolis family with a long history of humanitarian work..

According to his military record, Kassig served in the U.S. Army's 75th Ranger Regiment, a special operations unit, was deployed to Iraq from April to July 2007 and medically discharged later that year at the rank of private first class.

Ed Kassig says his son was taken captive on Oct. 1, 2013, in Syria, where he was providing aid for refugees fleeing the country's civil war. His parents said Kassig had been working for the relief organization he founded, Special Emergency Response and Assistance, or SERA, when he was captured a year ago on his way to Deir Ezzour in eastern Syria. He converted to Islam while in captivity and the family has heard from former hostages that his faith has provided him comfort.

Paula Kassig holds a photo of her son in the video and says, 'We implore those who are holding you to show mercy and use their power to let you go.'

National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden confirmed that Islamic State militants had Kassig.

'We will continue to use every tool at our disposal - military, diplomatic, law enforcement and intelligence - to try to bring Peter home to his family,' Hayden said.

The ISIL Internet video released Friday purports to show the death of British citizen Alan Henning. Henning, a cab driver in England, was captured during Islamic State's occupation of the Syrian city of Al-Dana shortly after arriving there in December 2013 on a humanitarian aid mission.

'ISIL's brutality will not persuade us to change our approach,' British Prime Minister David Cameron said Saturday. 'Indeed, the senseless murder of an innocent man only reinforces our resolve to defeat this terrorist organization and to eradicate the threat they pose.'

'I am Alan Henning. Because of our Parliament's decision to attack the Islamic State, I, as a member of the British public, will now pay the price for that decision,' Henning says in the video, which ends with the threat against Kassig.

A Sept. 15, 2014 photo to British aid worker, Alan Henning holding a child in a refugee camp on the Turkish-Syrian border. (Photo: AFP/Getty Images )

In recent weeks, the militants have released videos showing the beheading of American reporters James Foley and Steven Sotloff and British aid worker David Haines. In the Haines video, the militants warned that Henning would be next.

FBI Director James Comey says American officials believe they know the identity of the masked militant, who speaks in a London accent. Comey has declined to name the man or reveal his nationality on the videos.

On Friday, President Barack Obama released a statement condemning the beheadings .

'Standing together with our UK friends and allies, we will work to bring the perpetrators of Alan's murder - as well as the murders of Jim Foley, Steven and David - to justice,' he said. 'Standing together with a broad coalition of allies and partners, we will continue taking decisive action to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL.'

This undated image shows a frame from a video released Friday, Oct. 3, 2014, by Islamic State militants that purports to show the killing of taxi driver Alan Henning by the militant group. (Photo: Associated Press )

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