Kayla Mueller, the American humanitarian aid worker held captive by the Islamic State, was killed by the terrorist group despite previous reports that she died in a Jordanian airstrike, according to another hostage.
BBC reported that a Yazidi woman held as a "slave" by now-deceased Islamic State (IS, also known as ISIS or ISIL) second-in-command Hajji Mutazz said the terrorist group was responsible for Mueller’s death.
While it was previously reported that Mueller was repeatedly raped by IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the terrorist group has alleged that the American hostage was killed in a building destroyed by Jordanian airstrikes.
However, according to the since-escaped Yazidi woman, Amshe, the IS second-in-command informed her that Baghdadi killed Mueller when he was finished abusing her.
According to the former hostage, Mutazz laughed at news reports that Mueller was killed in the airstrike, saying, "Her stupid government. We killed her."
"We killed her because she is an American," he allegedly continued. "If Obama wanted to he could tell Bashar [al-Assad, the Syrian president] to stop bombing us. Ten of our women and children die every day. This is our revenge. We will kill any American citizen we capture. If any Western government refuses to put pressure on Bashar, we will kill their citizens too."
U.S. government officials who have spoken with Amshe deemed her account plausible though it remains the only account of its kind.
Two other young Yazidi girls taken hostage by IS who have since escaped told BBC that Mueller, who was kidnapped in Syria in August 2013, was tortured by the terrorist group, her fingernails pulled out.
According to one of the girls, Baghdadi made Mueller his fourth wife and repeatedly raped her.
Mueller’s family confirmed her death in February after receiving a message from her Islamic State captors that included photos of her corpse. IS claimed that Mueller had perished in a building in Raqqa, Syria, after an airstrike.