Hostage’s family say they were told by US officials that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi took Mueller as his ‘wife’ and sexually abused her repeatedly

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

The late American hostage Kayla Mueller was repeatedly raped by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State group, US officials have said.



Mueller, an aid worker, 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 raped her 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 authorised to be quoted by name.

US officials, the Independent wrote, were provided with the information by 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.

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