Newskayla-muellerISISIS

Dead ISIS Hostage Kayla Mueller 'Forced To Marry Jihadist Leader'

Dead Islamic State Hostage Kayla Mueller 'Forced To Marry Jihadist Leader'
Sara C Nelson
|

A 26-year-old aid worker held hostage by Islamic State (IS), also known as ISIS or ISIL, may have been forced to marry a senior jihadist commander before she died, it has emerged.

Kayla Mueller was the only known remaining US hostage held by the group, having been taken into captivity in August 2013 while leaving a hospital in Syria.

Last week IS announced she had died in a Jordanian airstrike, communicating the information to her family which was later authenticated by the US government.

Open Image Modal

Kayla Mueller with her mother

Mueller had written to her family during her captivity to tell them she had been treated with “the utmost respect and kindness”.

And this week a counter-terrorism official told ABC News: “ISIS didn’t see her as a hostage or bargaining chip.”

Information gathered on the movements of IS in Syria indicated Mueller was often in the company of a leader who had “custody” over her, possibly by forced marriage, the network adds.

SEE ALSO:

A statement from Mueller’s family last week said “We are heartbroken to share that we’ve received confirmation that Kayla Jean Mueller, has lost her life. Our hearts are breaking for our only daughter, but we will continue on in peace, dignity, and love for her.”

Forced marriages are prevalent in the group, which is also killing and enslaving members of Iraq's ancient religious minorities, including Assyrian Christians and the Yazidis.

British mother Tareen Shakil left her Staffordshire home to join the militants in Syria but fled the terrorist stronghold when they tried to force her to become a jihadi bride.

Open Image Modal

Tareena Shakil and her toddler son Zaheem

There have also been reports thousands of Iraqi and Syrian women captured by IS militants are being forced to work in “brothels”, with some media organisations claiming they are being run by British female jihadists.

Academic and Middle East expert Haleh Esfandiari has said IS allow their followers to rape captured girls and women as a "reward".

"To the men of ISIS, women are an inferior race, to be enjoyed for sex and be discarded, or to be sold off as slaves," she blogged for the Wall Street Journal.

Mueller worked on aid projects in India, Israel, and the Palestinian Territories, with people at an HIV/AIDS clinic and a women’s shelter at home in Arizona, and, most recently, Syrian refugees in Turkey.

She was active in campaigning for Darfur during her university years, writing letters, lobbying members of Congress, and conducting two silent walks. Her high school teacher told a local paper at the time that he could envision a then 19-year-old Mueller "running an activism group, or getting involved in national or international politics."

She worked in Turkey and Syria with the international humanitarian aid agency Support to Life. In an article published in her local paper The Daily Courier before she was kidnapped, Mueller pleaded for aid for those she was helping.

"Syrians are dying by the thousands, and they're fighting just to talk about the rights we have," Mueller said. "For as long as I live, I will not let this suffering be normal, something we just accept. It's important to stop and realise what we have, why we have it and how privileged we are. And from that place, start caring and get a lot done."

Kyla Mueller's letter to her parents:

It reads:

"Everyone, if you are receiving this letter it means I am still detained but my cell mates (starting from 11/2/2014) have been released. I have asked them to contact you and send you this letter. It is hard to know what to say. Please know that I am in a safe location completely unharmed and healthy (put on weight in fact). I have been treated with the upmost respect and kindness. I wanted to write you all a well-thought-out letter (but I didn't know if my cell mates would be leaving in the coming days or the coming months restricting my time but primarily I could only write the letter a paragraph at a time).

"Just the thought of you all sends me into a fit of tears. If you could say I have "suffered" at all throughout this whole experience it is only knowing how much suffering I have put you all through. I will never ask you to forgive me as I don't deserve your forgiveness. I remember mom always telling me that all in all and in the end, the only one you really have is God. I have come to a place in this experience where, in every sense of the word, I have surrendered myself to our creator because literally there was no one else.

"And by God and by your prayers I have been tenderly cradled in free fall, I have been shown in darkness, light and have learned that even in prison, one can be free. I am grateful. I have come to see that there's good in every situation, sometimes we just have to look for it. I pray each day that if nothing else you have felt a certain closeness and surrender to god as well and formed a bond of love and support amongst one another.

"I miss you all as if it has been a decade of forced separation. I have had many a long hour to think, to think, to think of all the things I will do, our first family camping trip, the first meeting at the airport. I have had many hours to think how only in your absence have I finally, at 25-years-old come to realise your place in my life. The gift that is each one of you and the person I could and could not be if you were not a part of my life, my family, my support.

"I DO NOT want the negotiations for my release to be your duty, if there is any other option take it, even if it takes more time. This should never have become your burden. I have asked these women to support you, please seek their advice. If you have not done so already xxx [redacted] can contact xxx [redacted] who may have a certain lever of experience with these people. None of us could have known it would be this long but know I am also fighting from my side in the ways I am able and I have a lot of fight left inside of me.

"I am not breaking down and I will not give in no matter how long it takes. I wrote a song some months ago that says "the part of me that pains the most also gets me out of bed, without your hope there would be nothing left." aka - The thought of your pain is the source of my own, simultaneously the hope of our reunion is the source of my strength. Please be patient, give your pain to God. I know you would want me to remain strong that is exactly what I am doing. Do not fear for me. Continue to pray as will I and by God's will, we will be together soon.

All my everything, Kayla"

Women of Isis
Twins Salma and Zahra Halane(01 of10)
Open Image Modal
The 16-year-old schoolgirls from Chorlton, Manchester, followed their brother who had also gone to fight in Syria. They are now married to ISIS fighters, and told a reporter for their local paper that they spend most of their time indoors, leaving only with their husbands. Both twins, the daughters of Somali refugees, had achieved excellent GCSE results, 23 grades A*-C between them at Whalley Range High School for Girls. A twitter account linked to one of the twins shows a woman in a burka, with an AK47. It appears the account has since been removed.
Khadijah Dare aka Muhajirah fi Sham(02 of10)
Open Image Modal
Khadijah Dare, a mother of one originally from Lewisham, has engaged in active recruitment of women for Isis. She left Britain in 2012 to live in Syria with her Swedish husband.Writing on Twitter under her name Muhajirah fi Sham, which means immigrant in Syria, Dare praised the killing of US journalist James Foley, saying: “Any links 4 da execution of da journalist plz. Allahu Akbar. UK must b shaking up ha ha. I wna b da 1st UK woman 2 kill a UK or US terorrist!(sic)”.In a recruitment video for the group, the 22-year-old can be seen firing an AK47, calling on Brits to come and fight. “Instead of sitting down and focusing on your families or focusing on your studies, you need to stop being selfish because time is ticking," she said.
Aqsa Mahmood aka Umm Layth (03 of10)
Open Image Modal
Umm Layth was a prolific tweeter until she was identified in the press as 20-year-old Glaswegian Aqsa Mahmood.In her tweets, she urged Muslim men and women who could not come to fight to instead commit terrorist atrocities at home, praising the brutal murder of Drummer Lee Rigby in Woolwich, the bombing of the Boston Marathon and the shooting of soldiers at Fort Hood in Texas. "If you cannot make it to the battlefield, then bring the battlefield to yourself," she tweeted.Mahmood, who is now married to an Isis fighter, attended the prestigious Craigholme School and was studying radiography at Glasgow Caledonian University when she left for Syria. Her family reported her missing to police in November 2013.Despite praising al Qaeda terrorists and encouraging more attacks, her tweets betray her Westernised roots. One asks for someone to "make a Hijrah [pilgrimage] from Scotland already and bring me Irn-Bru.” She also tweeted with delight at receiving European food, including Pringles crisps and Nutella.
Al Khanssaa(04 of10)
Open Image Modal
A close friend of Aqsa and a Brit of Somalian heritage, Khanssaa is described on Twitter as the "cook of the house" in Raqqa where several girls live. She tweets them offering up Nutella pancakes. Unlike many of the other girls who have tweeted about how their families disapprove of their mission to Syria, Khanssaa said she is following in the footsteps of her father who left her family to fight a holy war, though she does not specify where.
Umm Anwar / Umm Farris(05 of10)
Open Image Modal
With the black flag of Isis as her profile picture, Umm Anwar, who also goes by the name Umm Farris, is one of the four British girls married to an Islamic State fighters who has only recently been identified by researchers. She is believed to be based in Raqqa, and recently said she was surprised to discover a ‘Yazidi slave girl’ from Iraq in a home she visited. As well as retweeting praise for Islamic State fighters and the Caliphate, she mentions shopping and joking with her friends in the city while her husband fights.
GreenBirds22(06 of10)
Open Image Modal
Though much of her account extols the virtue of jihad, the third member of the British girl gang in Raqqa peppers her tweets with English slang, like ‘ain’t’ and calls her fellow ISIS wives ‘babesss’. Going under the name 'Black Banners' on Twitter, where her profile picture includes Osama Bin Laden, she suggested she is the second wife of a fighterShe tweets about being “bored” in Raqqa and asks her friends repeatedly to meet up and visit her. Her twitter also includes retweets of beautiful pictures and Vines, including a sunset at the Golden Gate bridge, San Francisco, and a comedy sketch about accidentally dropping a cookie in milk.
UkhtiB(07 of10)
Open Image Modal
A close friend of Anwar, the pair joke about their shopping habits on Twitter, arrange lifts, drink smoothies and cook each other food. Her background is unclear, but she hints that her family disapprove of her being in Syria, tweeting: “Your family will be the biggest test for you once you make Hijrāh. They're either with you or without you.”Much of her feed consists of retweets of local fighters and of Islamic sayings, as well as graphic pictures of the dead from Iraq, Syria and Gaza.
Umm Talib(08 of10)
Open Image Modal
The fourth member of the group of girls in Raqqa, who calls herself Qad Af-Iahal Shuhada, has a son with her, and is believed to be from London or the south of England, having tweeted about leaving her Oyster card in the pocket of her abaya, a type of female Muslim covering, while she put it in the watch. A foodie, she recently retweeted a recipe for Vietnamese chicken with avocado and lemongrass spring rolls, then messaged her friend to tell her she was cooking for them. Other tweets include a picture of the girls out for dinner in Raqqa, eating hummus and pita with chilli and vegetables.
Umm Khattab(09 of10)
Open Image Modal
One of the most prolific tweeters amongst the women in Isis is a British 18-year-old who goes under the twitter handle @UmmKhattab, who has tweeted about previously being based in the town of Manbij, close to Aleppo, tweeting sunsets from the rooftops, but has recently moved to Raqqa. "Best thing ive done in my 18 years in this world is come to the blessed land of shaam and leave Britain the land of kuffar," she posted in June.And she tweeted a dim view of the UK's plan to strip returning jihadists of their citizenship. "Uk government are funny im not returning to ur dirty society which has no moral values y'all r all uncivilised and need islam to liberate u," she wrote.
Sally Jones aka Umm Hussain al-Britani(10 of10)
Open Image Modal
Formerly a rock musician in a local band, the 45-year-old mother-of-two from Chatham, Kent, is believed to have converted to Islam to marry a British Isis fighter Junaid Hussain. The couple are reported to have moved to Raqqa, leaving her children behind.Her Twitter account under the name Umm Hussain al-Britani, contains threats like "You Christians all need beheading with a blunt knife and stuck on the railings at Raqqa... Come here I'll do it for you."
Suggest a correction
|
Submit a tip