The White House has confirmed the death of Kayla Jean Mueller, the 26-year-old American aid worker believed to be the last American held hostage by the Islamic State.
In a statement, President Barack Obama said he and the First Lady learned of Mueller’s death with “profound sadness” and conveyed condolences to Kayla’s family – her parents, Marsha and Carl, and her brother Eric and his family.
“At this time of unimaginable suffering, the country shares in their grief,” Obama said. The terrorist group claimed Friday that Mueller had been killed in a Jordanian airstrike, but the U.S. had not confirmed the report and Jordanian government sources insisted the claim was “illogical” and “propoganda.”
The White House said that Mueller’s family over the weekend received a “private message” from her captors and that once the information was authenticated by the intelligence community, they concluded that Kayla was deceased.
Obama praised Mueller in a lengthy statement, noting that the Prescott, Ariz., woman had “dedicated her life to helping others in need at home and around the world.” He noted she volunteered at a women’s shelter and worked at an HIV/AIDS clinic, as well as with humanitarian organizations in India, Israel, and the Palestinian territories.
She helping Syrian refugees along the Syrian-Turkish border when she was abducted.
Obama said she “represents what is best about America” and quoted her as saying Americans are “free to speak out without fear of being killed, blessed to be protected by the same law we are subjected to, free to see our families as we please, free to cross borders and free to disagree. We have many people to thank for these freedoms and I see it as an injustice not to use them to their fullest.”
He vowed that “no matter how long it takes,” the U.S. would “find and bring to justice” those who abducted and killed her.
“In how she lived her life, she epitomized all that is good in our world,” Obama said. “She has been taken from us, but her legacy endures, inspiring all those who fight, each in their own way, for what is just and what is decent.”
He called the Islamic State a “hateful and abhorrent terrorist group whose actions stand in stark contrast to the spirit of people like Kayla. On this day, we take comfort in the fact that the future belongs not to those who destroy, but rather to the irrepressible force of human goodness that Kayla Mueller shall forever represent.”
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