ISIS beheads U.S. hostage, third American in as many months

Sunday, the White House confirmed ISIS beheaded 26-year-old Peter Kassig of Indiana.

Kassig, an American aid worker, was captured by the militant group last fall in Syria, while helping victims of that country’s civil war.

His parents pleaded with the enemy to not harm their son.

“We implore those who are holding you to show mercy and use their power to let you go,” Kassig’s mom said.

Those pleas were ignored and their son was beheaded by ISIS in a new video released this weekend.

UCCS Public Policy Professor Edin Mujkic is an expert on the Middle East.

Mujkic believes U.S. airstrikes are weakening the enemy. The academic doesn’t favor sending ground troops into Iraq.

“If ISIS is defeated in let’s say a year, that doesn’t mean the problems in Iraq and Syria are going to be solved at all.”

In a letter from captivity, Kassig wrote to his father: “If I do go down, I won’t go thinking anything but what I know to be true. That you and mom love me more than the moon and the stars.”