IS hostage killing pure evil, says Barack Obama

Washington: US President Barack Obama has condemned the killing of US aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig as "an act of pure evil".

His parents said he died "as a result of his love for the Syrian people". Kassig, 26, was taken while working for a refugee group. He is the fifth Western hostage to be killed by IS, which controls parts of Syria and Iraq.

The US president praised Kassig as a humanitarian and said he had been killed "in an act of pure evil by a terrorist group that the world rightly associates with inhumanity". He paid tribute to the dead man's "indomitable spirit of goodness and perseverance". Obama's comments came as he flew back to the US from the G20 summit in Australia. He paid tribute to the dead man's "indomitable spirit of goodness and perseverance". Kassig's parents, Ed and Paula, from Indiana, said in a statement they were heartbroken. "We are incredibly proud of our son for living his life according to his humanitarian calling," they said. "We will work every day to keep his legacy alive as best we can."

Meanwhile, western intelligence officials are trying to identify Islamic State (IS) militants seen in the video that shows the beheading of US aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig and 18 Syrian prisoners.

One of the militants is likely to be a Frenchman named Maxime Hauchard, 22, France's interior minister says. Another is reportedly a Briton but his father says it is unclear the video shows his son, Nasser Muthana, 20.