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Kayla Mueller forced to have sex with Isis leader before her death, officials say | |
(35 minutes later) | |
The late American hostage Kayla Mueller was repeatedly forced to have sex with Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State group, US officials have said. | |
Mueller was held for a time by Islamic State financier Abu Sayyaf and his wife, Umm Sayyaf. Baghdadi reportedly took Mueller as a “wife”, and repeatedly forced her to have sex with him when he visited, her parents Carl and Marsha Mueller were told. | |
The claims were first reported by the Independent . A US official who confirmed the account to the Associated Press, was not authorized to be quoted by name. | |
American officials, the Independent wrote, were provided the information from a Yazidi teenager who had been held with Mueller. The 14-year-old talked to US officials, who corroborated her account with other intelligence and passed it on to her parents, Carl and Marsha Mueller, in June, according to a family spokeswoman, Emily Lenzner. | |
Mueller’s death in captivity was announced in February. Though the group said Mueller died in a Jordanian air raid made in retaliation for Islamic State’s gruesome killing of a Jordanian pilot, US officials and others have challenged that version, saying there was no indication how or when she died. | |
Her family said it suspects that Mueller might have been murdered by Isis in retaliation for Jordan’s killing of its prisoner Sajida Rishawi, a prisoner who had participated in the 2005 hotel suicide bombings in Amman. | Her family said it suspects that Mueller might have been murdered by Isis in retaliation for Jordan’s killing of its prisoner Sajida Rishawi, a prisoner who had participated in the 2005 hotel suicide bombings in Amman. |
Abu Sayyaf was killed in a Delta Force raid of his Syrian compound in June, which resulted in a treasure trove of intelligence about the Islamic State group. Umm Sayyaf gave extensive information to American interrogators and has been turned over to the Iraqi Kurds for trial. | |
The Muellers have been told she can be expected to serve a long prison sentence, Lenzner told the Independent. | |
The White House and State Department declined to comment. The Guardian could not independently confirm the accounts. | |
In a letter to her family that she wrote last spring before her death, Mueller says she had been “treated with the utmost respect + kindness”, adding that she was being kept in a safe location, “completely unharmed + healthy”. | |
The Associated Press contributed to this report | The Associated Press contributed to this report |