Slain IS hostage ‘gave up chance to escape’
Before her death Kayla Mueller had opportunity to flee captivity, but did not want to leave unwell cellmate behind, Foreign Policy reports
Kayla Mueller, an American international aid worker who died in Islamic State captivity, may have given up on a chance to escape last year due to her concern for a second captive woman who was not well enough to make the attempt, Foreign Policy magazine reported over the weekend.
Mueller was captured in August 2013 after leaving a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Aleppo, Syria, and held for 18 months.
Sometime in 2014 Mueller, 26, was reportedly faced with the possibility of escaping along with a third woman, a young girl from Iraq’s Yazidi minority. Details of how this escape was managed were not provided. But Mueller decided to stay in order to not leave her cellmate, another aid worker, behind, and the Yazidi girl left alone.
According to Foreign Policy the story was relayed to Western officials by the Yazidi girl after she reached safety at the hands of US military forces.
Mueller is believed to have been the personal prisoner of top IS figure Abu Sayyaf, who was killed earlier this month in a US commando raid into Syrian territory. Abu Sayyaf has been described as the head of the organization’s oil and gas drilling operations — a crucial source of funding for the group.
Mueller’s death was confirmed in February of this year by her family and US officials. The Islamic State group claimed she died in a Jordanian airstrike, but US officials have not confirmed that. The Pentagon said it didn’t know how she was killed.
In addition to participating in a humanitarian mission to Syria, Mueller had worked with Arab communities throughout the West Bank and Israel.
Mueller’sfamily has been critical of the US government’s refusal to negotiate for her release, despite conducting a prisoner swap for US Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in May of last year. Mueller’s parents told NBC’s “Today” that the US government put policy ahead of American lives.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest has said the Mueller family had been put in a difficult position by the US policy against making concessions to terrorists, but he defended it as being in the best interests of the nation.
“The president is confident that his administration did do everything that was possible within the confines of that policy — using our military might, using our intelligence capability, using our diplomatic influence — to try to secure the safe release and return of Kayla Mueller,” Earnest said.
A recent Associated Press-GfK poll found that only 3 in 10 Americans think the United States should pay a ransom to save an American hostage overseas, even if it’s the only way to rescue the hostage. A quarter of Americans say there are circumstances when the United States should directly negotiate with a terrorist group.
AP contributed to this report.
