U.S. intelligence officials are investigating a claim by ISIS that its sole known remaining American hostage, an aid worker held for nearly a year and a half, has been killed, and the terrorist group's claim that her death came in a Jordanian airstrike, sources told Fox News.
Kayla Mueller, 26, whose identity had previously not been revealed at the request of the U.S. government and her family as the Pentagon worked to secure her, is believed to be the last American hostage the terrorist army is holding, since the beheading of Peter Kassig, a 26-year-old American aid worker, killed in November. In its statement, ISIS also claimed Mueller was the only person killed in the airstrike, claiming none of its fighters injured or killed.
“We are obviously deeply concerned by these reports," said National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan. "We have not at this time seen any evidence that corroborates ISIL’s claim.”
Late Friday night, the Mueller family released a statement saying "we are still hopeful that Kayla is alive." Addressing those who held Kayla, her family said,"We have sent you a private message and ask that you respond to us privately. We know that you have read our previous communications."
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Images of children suffering in the early stages of Syria's ongoing civil war prompted Mueller, 26, to leave her home in Prescott, Ariz., in December, 2012, to work with the Danish Refugee Council and the humanitarian organization Support to Life to help refugees. According to a family spokesperson, Kayla found the work heartbreaking but compelling.
"For as long as I live, I will not let this suffering be normal, something we just accept," Mueller told her hometown newspaper, The Daily Courier, in a 2013 interview during a trip home to her family. "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."
She was captured on Aug. 4, 2013, in Aleppo, Syria, while leaving a Spanish hospital staffed by the international humanitarian group Doctors without Borders.
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Unlike other Islamic State captives killed by the group after their ransom demands were spurned, Mueller has not been featured on any hostage videos in which the terror army's prisoners, under obvious duress, denounce the West and plead for their lives. In some cases, intelligence officials have determined the hostages were killed long before the Islamic State militants claimed, raising the possibility that Mueller was already dead.
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