ISIS said in February that Mueller, of Prescott, Arizona, was killed
when Jordanian fighter jets bombed a building where she was being held
outside Raqqa, a stronghold in Syria of the Islamist militant group.
Kayla Mueller,
the U.S. aid worker killed this year while being held hostage by Islamic
State militants, was raped repeatedly by the group's leader, Abu Bakr
al-Baghdadi, while in captivity in Syria, U.S. officials said on Friday.
Her parents, Carl and Marsha Mueller,
were told by U.S. government officials that their daughter had been
raped by al-Baghdadi and tortured during her captivity, family
spokeswoman Emily Lenzner told Reuters by telephone. Mueller was 26 at the time of her death and would have turned 27 on Friday, August 14.
"We can confirm that the Mueller family learned in June of Kayla's treatment from the FBI," Lenzner said.
ABC News first
reported al-Baghdadi's sexual abuse of Mueller, and U.S. officials,
speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the report. ABC News
quoted Mueller's parents as saying they were told by the U.S. government
their daughter "was the property of al-Baghdadi."
Islamic State said in February that Mueller, of Prescott, Arizona,
was killed when Jordanian fighter jets bombed a building where she was
being held outside Raqqa, a stronghold in Syria of the Islamist militant
group. Jordanian and U.S. officials have expressed doubt about Islamic
State's account of her death following 18 months as a hostage.
Mueller was seized in August 2013 while leaving a hospital in Aleppo in northern Syria.
Al-Baghdadi
personally brought Mueller to be imprisoned inside the home in Syria of
Abu Sayyaf, a Tunisian Islamic State figure killed in a U.S. raid in
May, U.S. counter-terrorism officials told ABC News.
The
information about al-Baghdadi's actions came from many sources
including U.S. interviews with at least two teenage Yezidi girls held as
sex slaves in Sayyaf's compound and the interrogation of Sayyaf's wife,
Umm Sayyaf, who was captured by U.S. forces in the raid in which her husband was killed, the officials told ABC News.
Mueller went to Turkey in December 2012 to work for a Turkish organization providing humanitarian aid to Syrian refugees along the Syrian border.
Islamic
State has beheaded numerous hostages, including three Americans. Its
forces control wide swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria.
Lenzner
said Mueller's parents were told at a meeting in Washington of
Mueller's abuse by al-Baghdadi and her torture while held captive.
Lenzner was not clear about whether al-Baghdadi was responsible for
torturing Mueller.
Mueller's family declined to comment directly on Friday.
"The family is so exhausted at this point, they need some time," Lenzner said.
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