Islamic State has released another video of an American being beheaded. Peter Kassig, a former Army Ranger and aid worker, was kidnapped in Syria a year ago.

ABC News:

Kassig, the fifth Western hostage ISIS has claimed to have killed since August, changed his name to Abdul-Rahman after converting to Islam, according to his parents. The aid worker and former Army Ranger was abducted in October 2013 while traveling to a town in eastern Syria.

Towards the end of the nearly 16-minute video, a militant stands over a severed head, saying, "This is Peter Edward Kassig, a U.S. citizen, of your country; Peter who fought against the Muslims in Iraq, while serving as a soldier."

The militant speaks with a British accent and the video identifies his location as Dabiq, a small town in the northern Syrian province of Aleppo, near the Turkish border.

This is in the first in which hostage isn't seen alive before his apparent murder.

Kassig's parents said in a statement that they were aware of the reports of their son's death and were waiting for confirmation from the government as to the authenticity of the video. They declined to comment further.

In a letter smuggled out by a former ISIS captive, Kassig, 26, wrote to his parents that he was afraid to die.

“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,” he wrote in the letter, according to his parents. “I am very sad that all this has happened and for what all of you back home are going through. 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.”

Kassig was an Army veteran who served in the Iraq war before he was honorably discharged for medical reasons in 2007.

The narrator was not "Jihad John," the British national that intelligence agencies have identified as the IS fighter in the videos. It is believed that the US strike that targeted IS leaders last week may have wounded him.

Islamic State's momentum appears to have been blunted thanks to a combination of US air strikes and some stout fighting by both the Iraqi army and the Kurds. But the terrorists aren't going anywhere and show no sign of giving up any of the territory they conquered last summer.