Isis supporters claim US hostage killed in Jordanian air strike in Syria

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/06/us-hostage-isis-coalition-air-strike-killed-syria

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Supporters of Islamic State have claimed that an American aid worker held hostage by the militant group has been killed in a Jordanian air strike intended to avenge the burning to death of a captured Jordanian pilot.

A statement posted on a website sometimes used by Isis fighters and their supporters said that Kayla Mueller, 26, had been killed by a missile strike during a bombing raid by Jordanian planes on the Syrian city of Raqqa early on Friday.

Mueller was said to have been killed when rockets partially destroyed the building in which she was being held, the statement said, adding that no Isis fighters were killed in the attack.

Several pictures of a damaged building complex were included in the statement which they said showed the aftermath of the air strike, but the claim that Mueller had been killed could not be independently verified.

“The criminal crusader coalition planes targeted sites outside Raqqa city today at noon while people were performing Friday prayers,” the message read.

“The raids continued on the same site for more than an hour. God has disappointed their endeavours and foiled their plot by not hitting any jihadi man thank God.”

State Department deputy spokesperson Marie Harf said she could not confirm the report, but said that “a number of Americans” were being held by Isis.

Bernadette Meehan, a spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council, said: “We are obviously deeply concerned by these reports.”

“We have not at this time seen any evidence that corroborates Isil’s claim,” she said, using another acronym for the group.

Mueller’s parents, Carl and Marsha Mueller from Arizona, said they were still hopeful she was alive.

In a statement released by a family representative, they asked Isis to contact the family privately.

“You told us that you treated Kayla as your guest. As your guest her safety and wellbeing remains your responsibility,” they said in a message directed to “those in positions of responsibility for holding Kayla”.

The Isis communique used Mueller’s full name and included her US contact details, which had not been made public by the media at the family’s request.

Last week the militant group prompted outrage around the world when they released a video of Jordanian pilot Muadh al-Kasasbeh being burned to death.

In response, Jordan’s King Abdullah vowed to step up his country’s role in the US-led coalition against Isis, promising to wage “relentless war” against the militant group which has taken control of a wide swath of Syria and Iraq.

Jordan announced that it sent tens of fighter jets to hit Isis targets in Syria on Thursday, including what they claimed were ammunition depots and training camps. Jordanian jets carried out a second wave of air strikes against Isis targets on Friday. US-led forces have launched 10 air strikes in Syria since Thursday, according to the US military.

Related: Jordanians turn their minds to revenge after Isis killing of pilot

Jordanian officials seemed to cast doubt on the reports of Mueller’s death. Foreign affairs minister Naser Judeh, said on Twitter: “An old and sick trick used by terrorists and despots for decades: claiming that hostages human shields held captive are killed by air raids.”

When asked by CNN about reports Mueller had been killed, Jordan’s government spokesman Mohammad al-Momani said Isis “use and lie about facts” in order to mislead public opinion. Momani said Jordan is “suspicious” of the claims.

Mueller, originally from Prescott, Arizona, was seized by Isis fighters in August 2013 as she left a hospital run by the Spanish branch of Medecins San Frontières in Aleppo.

The aid worker had traveled to the Turkish-Syrian border in December 2012 to work with groups providing support to Syrian refugees, a family spokesperson said in a statement.

She had spent the previous four years working for various aid groups in northern India, Israel and the Palestinian territories.

An unaffiliated citizens group in Raqqa who have proved reliable in the past told the Guardian they believed the claims of Mueller’s death were true, based on comments by Isis fighters.

But given the extent of the damage to the building complex shown in the statement, it is unclear how other Isis fighters could have escaped alive unless the hostage had been left unguarded.

Unusually for Isis, the militants did not provide footage or photographic evidence of Mueller’s purported death as it has done with previous hostages.

Over the past seven months, Isis has killed three American hostages: journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and aid worker Peter Kassig. All three men were on camera, and video of their killings was posted online.

Two Japanese hostages, Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto, were killed in December, as were two British aid workers, David Haines and Alan Henning.

John Cantlie, a British journalist, is believed to still be in Isis captivity. Cantlie has appeared in several Isis propaganda videos, the last of which was disseminated online in early January.

A second western female hostage is believed to remain in the hands of Isis militants in Syria. In contrast to the nine male hostages and Kasasbeh, neither Mueller nor the second female hostage have ever been shown on camera or in propaganda imagery distributed by the group.

Isis is believed to have previously released misleading reports on the fate of their captives. The group maintained that Kasasbeh was still alive throughout a prolonged – and eventually fruitless – attempt to negotiate a prisoner swap involving the two Japanese hostages and Sajida al-Rishawi, a would-be suicide bomber who had been on death row in Jordan since 2008.

The group’s media outlets released the video of Kasasbeh’s death on Tuesday, but Jordanian officials belief that he had been killed about a month earlier. Rishawi was hanged on Wednesday, hours after the video was released.

Mueller, who graduated from Northern Arizona University in 2009, had long made helping others a priority, according to the Mueller family spokesperson, who cited years of social welfare activities at home and abroad.

In a story in her hometown paper, the Prescott Daily Courrier, Mueller said she felt drawn to help after learning more about the situation in war-torn Syria.

“For as long as I live, I will not let this suffering be normal. [I will not let this be] something we just accept,” Mueller said. “It’s important to stop and realize what we have, why we have it and how privileged we are. And from that place, start caring and get a lot done.”