UNEARTHED

ISIS Leader al-Baghdadi May Have Had American Hostage Kayla Mueller Executed

Because she knew his identity and the identity of Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, the Islamic State’s spokesman at the time.

Kayla Mueller, the 26-year-old American who was killed while being held hostage by the Islamic State, may have been executed on the orders of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the recently slain leader of the group, according to a new report from The New York Times. The Islamic State had claimed Mueller died in a Jordanian airstrike in 2015, but a witness alleges that al-Baghdadi ordered her executed because she knew his identity and the identity of Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, the Islamic State’s spokesman at the time. Mueller was repeatedly raped by al-Baghdadi and moved to various locations in her last months, according to the wife of a close al-Baghdadi associate. A former FBI agent, who uncovered the information, has been working with the Mueller family on a pro-bono basis in hopes of eventually finding her body and bringing it home.