U.S. hostage is dead, Parents say
Proof supplied on fate of aid worker Kayla Mueller
The parents of Kayla Mueller, the American aid worker abducted by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, said Tuesday they now had proof from the group she was dead, four days after ISIS claimed she had been killed in a Jordanian airstrike.
Carl and Marsha Mueller, who had publicly maintained hope their daughter was still alive despite the claim by her abductors, did not specify the proof, saying only U.S. intelligence officials had confirmed its authenticity. The White House also announced it had confirmed Ms. Mueller was dead.
But two people who had been briefed on the proof said it consisted of at least three photographs, all headshots. Two of them showed the woman in a black Muslim head covering, with contusions to her face. In the third, she was wrapped in a white burial shroud.
It was unclear whether the injuries were consistent with ISIS’s assertion the aid worker, 26, died last Friday when Jordanian bombs flattened a structure in northern Syria where it said she had been held. Jordanian and American officials have challenged that assertion.
“We are heartbroken to share that we’ve received confirmation that Kayla Jean Mueller has lost her life,” her parents wrote from their home in Prescott, Ariz.
“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.”
A family representative said the Muellers had received a message from their daughter’s captors over the weekend, containing “additional information which the intelligence community authenticated and deemed credible” as proof she was dead.
Ms. Mueller, who had been working in Turkey for at least two aid organizations dedicated to helping refugees from Syria’s civil war, entered Syria on Aug. 3, 2013, and was abducted a day later.
In a letter to her family smuggled out of Syria, which the Muellers shared publicly for the first time Tuesday, she wrote she had not been mistreated, unlike several of the American and European hostages held by ISIS who are known to have been tortured, including by waterboarding.
“Everyone, if you are receiving this letter it means I am still detained but my cellmates … have been released,” she wrote in the undated letter.
“Please know that I am in a safe location, completely unharmed + healthy (put on weight in fact); I have been treated w/utmost respect + kindness.”
The details of her captivity remain blurry. European and Syrian hostages released by ISIS said they had been held in cells adjoining hers in a former potato chip factory north of Aleppo, as well as in at least two locations in Raqqa, capital of the group’s self-declared caliphate.
In Raqqa, she briefly had the company of three female employees of Doctors Without Borders who were later released. At the height of the hostage crisis in early 2014, she was one of at least 23 Western hostages, mostly Europeans, held by ISIS. Ms. Mueller and the three medical charity workers were the only women.
“The women were, in general, treated well,” said a former European hostage, and were not overtly abused the way male hostages were.
In Washington, Josh Earnest, the Obama administration’s spokesman, said the information received by the Mueller family, as analyzed by intelligence officials, did not provide any insight into how or when Ms. Mueller had died.
He also disputed ISIS’s assertion she was killed in a Jordanian airstrike.
There was no evidence “of civilians in the target area before the coalition strike.” And in any case, ISIS militants who were holding Ms. Mueller “were responsible for her safety and well-being.”
“Therefore, they are responsible for her death.”
Also Tuesday, the White House circulated a proposal that would authorize the U.S. military to fight ISIS terrorists while assuring Congress there would be no “enduring offensive combat” role. Officials said the ambiguous wording was designed to satisfy lawmakers with widely varying views on the need for ground operations.
Sen. Bob Menendez, a Democrat, said President Barack Obama would seek authorization for the use of force that would expire after three years. It would end the approval for operations in Iraq Congress passed in 2002.
Fellow Democrat, Rep. Steny Hoyer, said some rankand-file lawmakers want to set geographic limits and restrict the types of forces that can be used.
“They want some time limit so we can reconsider at some point in time, whether it’s 24 months, 36 months, 48 months,” he said at a news conference.
Many Republicans have said they prefer legislation that at least permits the use of ground troops if Mr. Obama decides they may be necessary.
Some, including Sen. John McCain, have gone further, saying ground troops are needed if ISIS fighters are to be defeated.
Fellow Republican Sen. Lindsay Graham was worried the Obama plan would not provide for the protection of U.S.-trained Syrian rebel troops on the ground in the event of an air attack by Syrian forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.
“It’s an unsound military strategy. I think it’s immoral if the authorization doesn’t allow for us to counter Assad’s air power,” he said.
We are so proud of the person Kayla was and the work she did