U.S. Hostage Passed on Chance to Escape

American ISIS hostage Kayla Mueller, whom ISIS claims was killed in a Jordanian air strike last year, reportedly turned down a chance to escape because she didn’t want to leave a fellow Western female hostage behind. Mueller, 26, was a humanitarian aid worker who was working with Syrian refugees in Turkey when she was taken as the personal captive of a senior ISIS official, Abu Sayyaf, in 2013. The second female aid worker, whose identity has not been disclosed, was not physically capable of trying to escape at the same time as Mueller, so Mueller stayed behind.