Kayla Jean Mueller (August 14, 1988 – c. February 6, 2015) was an American human rights activist and humanitarian aid worker from Prescott, Arizona. She was taken captive in August 2013 in Aleppo, Syria, while leaving a Doctors Without Borders hospital. Media had long reported that a 26-year-old American aid worker was being held by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) without naming her at her family's request. Her captivity and death were widely reported upon confirmation of her death.
Early life, activism and humanitarian aid
Mueller was a native of Prescott, Arizona. After graduating from Tri-City College Prep High School in 2007, she attended Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Mueller supported causes that supported humanitarian aid, human rights, youth mentorship, and environmental activism. Her involvement in human rights activism and humanitarian aid included working in India with Tibetan refugees. Her work in the Middle East included volunteering for Palestinian humanitarianism with the International Solidarity Movement and helping African refugees in Israel with the African Refugees Development Center. Other humanitarian and activist causes Mueller was involved in at home and abroad were Vrindavan Food For Life, which provides free food, education, and medical care for those in need; and during college, Food Not Bombs.
Capture and death
×Ads by Lights Cinema 1.2betaMueller started working in southern Turkey in December 2012, where she was assisting Syrian refugees. On August 3, 2013, she drove to the northern Syrian city of Aleppo with a co-worker/friend, who was traveling to the Doctors Without Bordershospital in Aleppo to work for a day. She worked with international aid agency Support to Life. Upon her departure from Aleppo to return to Turkey, she was abducted by militants.
It was reported by Catherine Herridge of Fox News via anonymous sources that the location of Mueller and other American hostages was known by the White House in May 2014, however, a decision regarding a rescue mission was not made for seven weeks. By that time, the hostages had been dispersed.
A media account affiliated with ISIS released a statement on February 6, 2015 claiming that a female American hostage held by the group was killed by one of around a dozen Jordanian airstrikes in Al-Raqqah (Raqqa, Syria). The statement came just days after the release of a video showing the burning alive of a Jordanian fighter pilot, Muath al-Kasasbeh, by ISIS and the subsequent execution of Sajida Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi and other prisoners of Jordan. The statement was later translated by the SITE Intelligence Group, identifying the hostage as Mueller.
Mueller had been in ISIS custody for 18 months. A US mission to rescue her and several others in northern Syria in July 2014 failed when ISIS moved the prisoners. The US was unaware of her location, though her family was told negotiations were underway to swap her for Aafia Siddiqui, according to Arizona House Representative Paul Gosar ABC News and CBS News reported that sources in the intelligence community believe Mueller may have been "given over" to an ISIS commander in a "forced marriage" and the group did not view her as a hostage who could be bargained. In a letter to her family, she spoke of being healthy, well-fed and treated with the utmost kindness and respect in a safe place. ISIS members corresponding with the Muellers referred to Kayla as their "guest".
On February 6, 2015, ISIS published a photo of a damaged building, named Mueller and her hometown and alleged she had been killed in a Jordanian airstrike in the building where she was left alone with no guards, but no proof of death was provided The Pentagon agreed the building was one hit in the bombings, but disputed that Mueller or any other civilian had been inside at the time. The site had been bombed by the coalition twice before, and was targeted again because ISIS soldiers sometimes return to bombed sites, thinking the coalition will not bomb those sites again, according to Pentagon spokesman John Kirby. After this, Mueller's name was released by American and other media with the family's consent.
On February 10, 2015, Mueller's family announced ISIS had confirmed her death to them in an e-mail, with three photographs of her dead body, bruised on the face and wearing a black hijab. National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said this message was authenticated by the intelligence community. President Barack Obamaoffered his condolences to Mueller's family.
It was reported in May 2015 that Mueller was a "personal captive" of Abu Sayyaf. In August 2015 it was reported that she had been forced into marriage to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who raped her repeatedly. The Washington Post reported that "[t]he leader of the Islamic State personally kept a 26-year-old American woman [Mueller] as a hostage and raped her repeatedly." The Mueller family was informed by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had sexually abused Ms. Mueller, and that Ms. Mueller had also been tortured.
On August 14, 2015, ABC News reported that Abu Sayyaf's widow, Umm Sayyaf, had confirmed that it was her husband who had been Mueller's primary abuser.
Reactions
Mueller's parents reportedly implored ISIS to contact them as they hoped their daughter might still be alive. "We have sent you a private message and ask that you respond to us privately", Carl and Marsha Mueller said in a statement. They said they had not talked to the media as ISIS warned them not to. Later, in an interview on The Today Show, Carl Mueller expressed his frustration with the Obama administration over the way it conducted negotiations with their daughter's captors and their policy of not paying ransom money for hostages. "We understand the policy about not paying ransom, but on the other hand, any parents out there would understand that you would want anything and everything done to bring your child home," Carl Mueller said. "And we tried, and we asked. But they put policy in front of American citizens' lives. And it didn’t get it changed."
Government
An American official cautioned that without proof of Mueller's death, the statement by ISIS could be a ploy to cause the Jordanians and the rest of the American-led coalition to refrain from any heavier airstrikes.
×Ads by Lights Cinema 1.2betaJordan's Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh called ISIS's claim "an old and sick trick" on Twitter. "So they behead innocent #US #UK & Japan hostages & BURN a brave #Jordan pilot ALIVE & now a hostage is killed by an airstrike? Sure! Sick!", he said. He further tweeted: "An old and sick trick used by terrorists and despots for decades: claiming that hostages human shields held captive are killed by air raids." Later upon confirmation of Mueller's death he tweeted: "Saddened & angered to hear news confirming killing of #US hostage #kaylaMueller. Yet another ugly example of these terrorists' brutality."
After many Western news outlets cast doubt on the claim of the hostage death and the extremists' ability to identify Jordanian and U.S. made F-16s flying at high altitudes, Jordan dismissed the claim of a killed hostage as an ISIS publicity stunt and a lie, as the group is known for its propaganda techniques.[34]
After Mueller's family confirmed her death, President Obama said "[Mueller] 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." United States Secretary of State John Kerry issued a statement saying "ISIL, and ISIL alone, is the reason Kayla is gone."
The Pentagon declined to investigate whether Mueller was killed by the coalition airstrike. Policy dictates that the U.S. only investigates reports of civilian casualties when they come from a "credible source", which ISIS is not.
Media
Time Magazine named Kayla Mueller as an ideal role model for Millennials, citing her selfless desire to end suffering, her activism, and her humanitarian aid work, praising her desire not to be seen, but to genuinely help people, and lauding her possession of Millennials' positive good qualities of idealism, optimism, and love of families without troublesome qualities also associated with the Millennial generation.
