Kayla Mueller, a 26-year-old woman from Prescott, Arizona, has died, her family said in a statement. She was kidnapped in Syria by ISIS in 2013 handheld hostage ever since.
“Kayla was a compassionate and devoted humanitarian. She dedicated the whole of her young life to helping those in need of freedom, justice, and peace,” the family said in their public statement.
“All Americans mourn the loss of Kayla Mueller, a compassionate young American who represented everything good about the human spirit,” Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday. “There are no words to express to Kayla’s parents, Marsha and Carl, how sorry we are for their crushing loss, just how much so many wished for and worked to try and secure a better outcome, or how awe-inspiring is the example of their strength, determination, and devotion to faith and family.
“I have learned a great deal about Kayla through the stories shared about her during this awful period,” Kerry continued. “She was someone any of us would be lucky to know as a daughter, sister, friend, or colleague. She so purposefully had one mission in life from the very start, and that was to help people: people in India, Israel, and the Palestinian Territories, people at an HIV/AIDS clinic and a women’s shelter at home in Arizona, and, most recently, Syrian refugees in Turkey. While ISIL (ISIS) exploited the crisis in Syria to rule by violence and massacre the innocent, human tragedy moved Kayla to do the opposite. She embraced children who had lost their parents. She comforted the sick and the wounded. She gave people hope even as their world fell apart around them. Kayla’s sense of values, her humanity and generosity, her idealism – this is what will endure, and it will endure long, long after the barbarity of ISIL is defeated.”
Blame was placed squarely on the shoulders of the terrorists for Kayla Mueller’s death.
“ISIL, and ISIL alone, is the reason Kayla is gone,” Kerry said. “Like our friends in Jordan, our resolve is unshaken to defeat this vile and unspeakably ugly insult to the civilized world and to defeat terrorists whose actions – killing women, killing children, burning people alive – are an insult to the religion they falsely claim to represent.”
2 thoughts on “American woman held by ISIS confirmed dead”
Yes, what a shame. Any Caucasian that goes to these countries should be prepared for this outcome.
This is a damn shame. All she wanted to do was help people and those damn animals killed her for it. They should be exterminated like the vicious animals they are.