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Post by Admin on Feb 7, 2015 22:32:07 GMT
The young American hostage who Islamic State says was killed in a Jordanian air strike was condemned to death by the militant group last year, according to an American Muslim activist. Islamic State seized aid worker Kayla Mueller in 2013 in northern Syria and initially gave her a "life sentence" in retaliation for the jailing in Texas of a Pakistani woman whose case is a well-known cause among Islamist militants, said activist Mauri Saalakhan, who leads a US campaign to free the Pakistani. The militant group said Ms Mueller, a 26-year-old from Arizona, was killed when Jordanian fighter jets bombed a building where she was being held. Jordan expressed doubt about the claim and US authorities said they could not confirm it. Ms Mueller's family had long asked US officials, aid groups and media outlets not to use her name for fear the publicity could induce Islamic State to harm her. After Islamic State's claim, Ms Mueller's parents issued a public statement, identifying their daughter by name and saying they remained hopeful she was still alive. Ms Mueller's family has not given details of any communication with the militant group and Mr Saalakhan's information could not be verified. Jordanian government spokesman Mohammed al-Momani said his country is looking into the claim. But, he said, “we are highly skeptical” because of ISIS’s proven lack of credibility, and he questioned whether they could identify Jordanian warplanes so high in the sky or would hold a hostage in a “weapon warehouse.” Later, he told CNN that ISIS uses “these events to manipulate facts and to manipulate public opinion.” “What we know about this terrorist organization is that they are liars when it comes to these things,” al-Momani told “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.” Interior Minister Hussein Majali also knocked down the report, calling it another “PR stunt” by ISIS.
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Post by Admin on Feb 10, 2015 22:38:31 GMT
The family of Kayla Jean Mueller said Tuesday it had received confirmation that she died while being held by Islamic State militants. The Mueller family released a letter it said she had written last year. Here is the text, as provided by the family, which also redacted some portions: Friends and family of slain ISIS hostage Kayla Mueller said they hoped her death would achieve what she'd worked for before she was kidnapped: raising the awareness of Syrian refugees. "The things that were important to Kayla are finally getting the attention they deserve," aunt Lori Lyon said in a tearful news conference in her hometown of Prescott, Arizona, Tuesday — hours after the family confirmed that Mueller had died while in ISIS' hands. The Rev. Kathleen Day, who runs the United Christian Ministry at Northern Arizona University, where Mueller was a student, recalled following her blog posts from Syria. "I hope you can tell the entire world here what I've said here, and what I've seen," Mueller wrote, according to Day. The pastor also recalled Mueller's recollection of refugee's frequent response when they learned she was American: "Where is the world?" "We're right here, Syria," Day said. "We've seen your suffering reflected in Kayla's eyes." Jen Psaki, a U.S. State Department spokeswoman, said the government were not able to confirm a cause of death. "The U.S. military has indicated that there was no evidence of civilians in the target area prior to any recent coalition airstrikes," Psaki said. Mueller traveled to the Turkish-Syrian border to work with refugees in December 2012, and was taken captive in Aleppo, Syria on Aug. 4, 2013, while leaving a Doctors Without Borders hospital. Her family asked the media to keep her name out of the press out of fears it would endanger her life.
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Post by Admin on Feb 11, 2015 13:45:22 GMT
She may have been an unwilling bride of ISIS. Kayla Jean Mueller, the Arizona aid worker whose death was confirmed Tuesday, was “given” to an Islamic State commander after she fell into their clutches, ABC News reported. “ISIS didn't see her as a hostage or a bargaining chip,” a counter-terrorism official told the network. Mueller had been spotted “in the company” of an ISIS leader who was being tracked by U.S. intelligence and some officials believed she was in a “forced marriage.” In a handwritten letter that Mueller’s parents released Tuesday, the 26-year-old captive insisted she was being treated with “the utmost respect + kindness” and that she was “unharmed” and even put on a few pounds. “I am also fighting from my side in the ways I am able + I have a lot of fight left inside of me,” she wrote in an undated letter her parents received last spring. “I am not breaking down + I will not give in no matter how long it takes.” Mueller also wrote that the pain she felt was from “knowing how much suffering I have put you all through” and that she had surrendered herself to God. “I have felt tenderly cradled in freefall,” she wrote in a letter that appears to have been smuggled out by a former ISIS captive. “I have been shown in darkness, light + have learned that even in prison, one can be free. I am grateful. I have come to see that there is good in every situation, sometimes we just have to look for it.” Mueller’s parents were notified by ISIS over the weekend that their daughter was dead and that sad fact was verified by U.S. intelligence officials. “We are heartbroken to share that we’ve received confirmation that Kayla Jean Mueller, has lost her life,” Carl and Marsha Mueller said in a statement. “Kayla was a compassionate and devoted humanitarian. She dedicated the whole of her young life to helping those in need of freedom, justice, and peace.” President Obama said that Mueller, who was working with Syrian refugees when she was captured in August 2013, “epitomized all that is good in our world.” “No matter how long it takes, the United States will find and bring to justice the terrorists who are responsible for Kayla’s captivity and death,” he said.
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Post by Admin on Sept 10, 2015 13:31:34 GMT
The Iraqi teenager met American aid worker Kayla Mueller in the sweltering confines of the darkened cell in which they were being held captive by the Islamic State. They shared stories of their experiences, which included being tortured and raped, forced to serve as sex slaves and wives to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The 16-year-old offered a plan for their escape, but Mueller, who was 26, said she was too scared she’d be caught and put to death. "She told me about the American journalist who was beheaded, and she said, 'If I escape, they will behead me,'" the young Iraqi woman, identified as "Zeinat," told CNN. "The first time I told her I would escape, she said, 'Don't run away; if they catch you, they will surely kill you." Zeinat’s account of her ordeal, which began when she was captured by ISIS soldiers near Mount Sinjar, in Iraq, and held captive until her daring escape about 10 weeks later, offers a look at the depraved conditions to which Mueller and scores of other young women have been subjected. Mueller was working with Syrian refugees when she was captured in August 2013. She was forced to dress in a niqab, a veil that covered her face, and her captor forbade other men from looking at her. He also gave her an expensive watch as a sign of ownership, Zeinat said.
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