His service including training in Fort Benning, Georgia, and a four-month deployment to Iraq, from April to July 2007, when he received a medical discharge.
[13] On October 1, 2013, as he was on his way to Deir Ezzour in eastern Syria to deliver food and medical supplies to refugees, Kassig was taken captive by ISIL.
[20] On November 16, 2014, ISIL posted a video showing "Jihadi John" standing over a severed human head.
[22] The Daily Telegraph and the security expert Will Geddes speculated that Kassig may have defied his captors, and refused to provide a beheading video statement.
[24] On December 2, 2018, the US-led anti-ISIL Coalition killed Abu al-Umarayn, an ISIL leader involved in Kassig's beheading, in a drone strike in the Syrian Desert.