U.S. Confirms Death of American Hostage Kayla Mueller

Kayla Jean Mueller, the last American hostage known to be held by Islamic State extremists, was confirmed dead on Tuesday. PHOTO: EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY

By Felicia Schwartz
Tuesday, February 10, 2015

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WASHINGTON— Kayla Jean Mueller, the last American hostage known to be held by Islamic State extremists, was confirmed dead by her relatives and the White House on Tuesday.

Ms. Mueller’s parents said they received confirmation of her death, but they didn’t provide further details of the circumstances. The Islamic State extremist group said she was killed in a Jordanian airstrike in Syria, but U.S. and Jordanian officials have been skeptical of the claim. Last Friday, her family said they believed she could still be alive and had asked her captors to respond to a private communication they had sent.

Islamic State militants sent Ms. Mueller’s family a private message over the weekend with information about Ms. Mueller, said Bernadette Meehan, spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council. The U.S. intelligence community authenticated the information and determined Ms. Mueller was dead, Ms. Meehan said.

U.S. officials said the extremists sent photographs of Ms. Mueller that were used to confirm her death. The official said it was impossible from the photos to determine if she had been killed in the recent Jordanian air strikes as the group claimed. A second U.S. official said there was nothing in the photos to indicate that she had been killed in an air strike.

“Kayla was a compassionate and devoted humanitarian,” Ms. Mueller’s family said in a statement. “We are so proud of the person Kayla was and the work that she did while she was here with us. She lived with purpose, and we will work every day to honor her legacy.”

President Barack Obama in a statement offered condolences to the Mueller family and vowed to bring those responsible for her death to justice.

“Kayla represents what is best about America, and expressed her deep pride in the freedoms that we Americans enjoy, and that so many others strive for around the world,” he said. Mr. Obama has spoken with Ms. Mueller’s parents, relatives and administration officials said.

Islamic State killed three other American hostages last summer, all men, in gruesome beheading videos that were publicly released. The group also beheaded two British hostages last summer, and more recently, two Japanese hostages.

Islamic State also recently released a video of a Jordanian pilot who had been taken captive and was then burned alive. That video prompted an outcry among the U.S.-led coalition’s Arab partners and prompted Jordan to step up airstrikes. United Arab Emirates also recently rejoined the air campaign after a brief hiatus.

Administration officials blamed Ms. Mueller’s death on her long captivity by Islamic State, also known as ISIS and ISIL. “ISIL, and ISIL alone, is the reason Kayla is gone,” Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement.

Ms. Mueller, who was 26 years old and from Arizona, traveled to the Turkey-Syria border region in December 2012 to work with aid organizations Support to Life and the Danish Refugee Council, according to her family. Relatives said she wanted to help refugees displaced by the Syrian civil war.

She had dedicated much of her postgraduate life to service work, her family said, including stints volunteering in India, Israel and the Palestinian territories, before traveling to the border region.

Islamic State extremists at one point asked for a ransom of $6.6 million for her release, according to a person involved in the negotiations, The Wall Street Journal reported last week. Another Islamic State demand was the release of Afia Siddiqui, a Pakistani imprisoned in the U.S.

The organization derives a substantial share of its income from holding hostages for ransom, counterterrorism officials have reported.

Talks stalled as the militants stopped responding to attempts to secure her release in the months after they claimed the killings of journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff last year, people involved in the case said.

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