American Hostage Kayla Mueller Had Been Raped Repeatedly by Abu Bakr al Baghdadi
WASHINGTON — American hostage Kayla Mueller was repeatedly forced to have sex with Abu Bakr Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), U.S. intelligence officials told her family in June.
“They told us that he married her, and we all understand what that means,” Carl Mueller, Kayla’s father, told The Associated Press on Friday, which would have been his daughter’s 27th birthday. Her death was reported in February.
Her mother, Marsha Mueller, added, “Kayla did not marry this man. He took her to his room and he abused her and she came back crying.”
The news is but the latest in a litany of horrors perpetrated by ISIS, which has beheaded, burned and crucified male captives while passing around women as sex slaves.
Mueller was held for a time by ISIS financier Abu Sayyaf and his wife, known as Umm Sayyaf. Al-Baghdadi took Mueller as a “wife,” repeatedly raping her when he visited, according to a Yazidi teenager who was held with Mueller and escaped in October 2014.
The 14-year-old made her way to Iraqi Kurdistan, where she talked to U.S. commandos in November 2014. Intelligence agencies corroborated her account and American officials passed it on to her parents in June.
Umm Sayyaf confirmed that al-Baghdadi had “owned” Kayla during Umm Sayyaf’s lengthy American interrogation in Iraq, the Muellers said they were told by American officials.
A senior administration official confirmed to CBS News senior White House correspondent Major Garrett the details of the report and what the Mueller family had been told and information gathered.
Abu Sayyaf was killed in a Delta Force raid of his Syrian compound in June, which resulted in a treasure trove of intelligence about ISIS. Umm Sayyaf has been turned over to the Iraqi Kurds for trial…