Islamic State said yesterday that an American woman hostage it was holding in Syria had been killed when Jordanian fighter jets bombed a building where she was being held.
In Washington, US officials said they could not confirm that the woman, who has been identified as 26-year-old aid worker Kayla Mueller of Prescott, Arizona, had been killed.
Ms Mueller was the last- known American hostage held by IS, which controls wide areas of Syria and Iraq and has executed five British and American aid workers and journalists.
The group's latest claim comes after it released a video on Tuesday appearing to show a captured Jordanian pilot, Mouath al-Kasaesbeh, being burned alive in a cage. Jordan immediately vowed to intensify military action against IS.
A representative of Ms Mueller’s family said the family had no information on the IS statement that she had been killed.
The White House said it was “deeply concerned” over the report but that it had not seen “any evidence that corroborates Isil’s claim”, using another name for the group.
IS, in a message picked up by the monitoring group SITE, said Ms Mueller died when the building in which she was being held outside Raqqa, a major stronghold of the group, collapsed in a Jordanian air strike yesterday.
“The air assaults were continuous on the same location for more than an hour,” IS said, according to SITE.
Jordanian aircraft hit multiple targets in Syria on Thursday and yesterday, including an ammunitions depot and storage facilities. Government spokesmanMohammad Momani said it was sceptial about IS’s claims about Ms Mueller’s death.
“It’s part of their criminal propaganda,” he said. “How could they identify Jordanian war planes from a huge distance in the sky? What would an American woman be doing in a weapons warehouse?”
Some news organisations had been aware Ms Mueller was being held hostage but did not name her at the request of her family, who believed the militants would harm her if her case received publicity.
She was taken hostage while leaving a hospital in the Syrian city of Aleppo in August 2013.
She had a long record of volunteering abroad and was moved by the plight of civilians in Syria’s civil war.
“For as long as I live, I will not let this suffering be normal. I will not let this be something we just accept,” her local newspaper The Daily Courier quoted her as saying in 2013. “When Syrians hear I’m an American, they ask, ‘Where is the world?’ All I can do is cry with them, because I don’t know,” she said.
Ms Mueller had worked for a Turkish aid organisation on the Syrian border and volunteered for schools and aid organisations abroad including in both the West Bank and Israel as well as in Dharamsala, India, where she taught English to Tibetan refugees.
A statement from her family said: “The common thread of Kayla’s life has been her quiet leadership and strong desire to serve others.”
Jordan is a major US ally in the fight against militant Islamist groups, and hosted US troops during operations that led to the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Hours after the release of the video showing the pilot burning to death, Jordanian authorities executed two al-Qaeda militants who had been imprisoned on death row, including a woman who had tried to blow herself up in a suicide bombing and whose release had been demanded by IS.
Thousands of Jordanians marched in the capital Amman yesterday, urging their monarch to step up air strikes on IS to avenge Lieut Muath al-Kasaesbeh's death.
Many Jordanians have opposed their country’s involvement in US-led air campaign against IS, fearing retaliation. But the killing of the recently married pilot, from an influential tribe, has increased support for the military push.
Queen Rania, the wife of King Abdullah, joined the marchers, carrying a picture of the pilot. "Muath died standing for his country and faith, defending our common humanity," she said. – (Reuters)