'I Am Scared to Die' — The Letter That Islamic State's Latest American Hostage Wrote to His Parents

Abdul Rahman Kassig, the American aid worker threatened with execution by his Islamic State captors in Syria, told his parents in a June letter that he was afraid of dying and sorry for the pain his imprisonment had caused them, according to excerpts released on Sunday.

Ed and Paula Kassig made a public appeal for their son's life after the 26-year-old appeared in an Islamic State video showing the beheading of Alan Henning, a British humanitarian worker captured while on a Muslim aid convoy to Syria.

As has become the jihadists' custom, the video followed Henning's killing with the threat of another, showing Kassig in an orange jumpsuit kneeling in the desert with a masked executioner standing over him. IS says the murders are in retaliation for Western military intervention against the group as it tries to establish an Islamic caliphate in Iraq and Syria.

The aid worker — who changed his name to Abdul Rahman from Peter upon converting to Islam in captivity — was kidnapped last October in Syria while working on a project for Special Emergency Response and Assistance (SERA), an organisation his parents said he had founded after feeling "the call to be a peacemaker."

In the letter, he wrote: "I am obviously pretty scared to die but the hardest part is not knowing, wondering, hoping, and wondering if I should even hope at all.

"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."

"The first thing I want to say is thank you. Both to you and mum for everything you have both done for me as parents; for everything you have taught me, shown me and experienced with me. I cannot imagine the strength and the commitment it has taken to raise a son like me, but your love and patience are things that I am so deeply grateful for."

The Kassigs, who live in Indianapolis, also released photos of their son throughout his life as they explained how the former US army ranger had moved to Turkey and established his aid organisation after seeing the plight of the Syrian people.

"Our family deplores all human suffering and the loss of innocent life, no matter who is responsible," Ed Kassig said the video statement posted to YouTube on Saturday. "We know that the Syrians are suffering. We also believe violence is not the solution to the problems that trouble us all. There is so much that is beyond our control. We've asked our government to change its actions, but like our son, we have no more control over the US government than you have over the breaking of dawn."

The appeal was released as Britain mourned the death of Alan Henning, the taxi driver from Salford who was taken hostage by IS while on an aid mission with a local Muslim charity.

Islamic leaders around the world had issued appeals for Henning's freedom and condemned his treatment by the jihadists as a reprehensible act in clear violation of sharia law. His wife Barbara had also pleaded publicly for his life.

Wife of British Hostage Alan Henning Appeals to Islamic State as UK Jets Strike Iraq. Read more here

But on Friday, the group released a video showing Henning's murder by the masked, British-accented executioner known as Jihadi John, a man already sought by UK and US security services for the killings of American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and another British aid worker, David Haines.

On Monday, a former IS captive who was held alongside Henning described how the Briton had always believed he would be released.

In a detailed account of their imprisonment given to The Telegraph, Seif al-Idlibi, a Syrian opposition activist, said that despite regular night-time interrogations Henning always remained in good spirits. When he was later transferred to a different facility, Henning cried for his fellow prisoners as he said goodbye, Idlibi said, explaining "He thought he was being freed and leaving us behind."

"He was very relaxed. He didn't understand who his captors were and he was convinced he would be released soon," the activist said.

Kassig, however, appears in his letter to have little left of such hope. In the final paragraphs, he told his parents: "I wish this paper would go on forever and never run out and I could just keep talking to you. Just know I am with you. Every stream, every lake, every field and river. In the woods and in the hills, in all the places you showed me. I love you."

Follow Hannah Strange on Twitter: @hannahkstrange