Parents of U.S. Woman Said Killed in IS Captivity Believe She Is Still Alive

WASHINGTON – The parents of the young American woman Kayla Mueller, a captive of the Islamic State, or IS, believe their daughter is still alive and have ask to speak directly with the jihadist group.

In a letter published Saturday in local media, Carl and Marsha Mueller referred to the IS announcement on Friday saying that the volunteer worker, 26, was killed in a Jordanian airstrike, though no proof was offered.

“This leaves us concerned, yet, we are still hopeful that Kayla is alive,” the parents said.

The young woman, an Arizona native, was kidnapped in August 2013, and since then the Mueller family has made no public statements so as not to undermine the possible release of the humanitarian aid worker.

The parents said they had previously communicated with the kidnappers, whom they begged to contact them again.

“You told us that you treated Kayla as your guest. As your guest her safety and well-being remains your responsibility,” they wrote.

“Kayla’s mother and I have been doing everything we can to get her released safely. At this time we ask you, who are holding Kayla, to contact us privately,” their message said.

The U.S. State Department said Friday that attempts are being made to find out if the jihadists’ announcement that Mueller was killed in a Jordanian airstrike was true, but that it could not “confirm those reports in any way.”

The IS blamed the Jordanian airforce for the death of the U.S. aid worker just hours after Jordan announced its reprisals against the jihadists for the cruel burning to death of a Jordanian pilot.

Jordan’s Interior Minister Hussein Majali said the IS blaming Mueller’s death on his country’s air force was just another “PR stunt.”

Mueller, a member of the NGO Support to Life, was working with Spanish volunteers of the humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders in the border area between Turkey and Syria when she was kidnapped in 2013.