War Stories

‘My name is Kayla Mueller’: ISIS hostage’s 2013 proof-of-life video uncovered

A dramatic 10-second video released this week by aid worker Kayla Mueller’s family showed the woman pleading for help shortly after Islamic State fighters kidnapped her in Syria in 2013.

The brief clip served as her proof-of-life video. U.S. officials confirmed last year she was killed. The cause of her death remains murky, though ISIS claimed a Jordanian airstrike killed her.

“My name is Kayla Mueller… I need your help,” she was reported as saying in the video. “I’ve been here too long, and I’ve been very sick. It’s, it’s very terrifying here.”

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A dramatic 10-second video released this week by aid worker Kayla Mueller’s family showed the woman pleading for help shortly after Islamic State fighters kidnapped her in Syria in 2013.

The brief clip served as her proof-of-life video. U.S. officials confirmed last year she was killed. The cause of her death remains murky, though ISIS claimed a Jordanian airstrike killed her.

“My name is Kayla Mueller… I need your help,” she was reported as saying in the video. “I’ve been here too long, and I’ve been very sick. It’s, it’s very terrifying here.”

A friend of Mueller’s reportedly received the video and gave it to the FBI. Investigators then sent the video to the aid worker’s parents, who gave it to ABC News. The video reportedly serves as the only images of Mueller in captivity.

Militants captured Kayla Mueller and her boyfriend, Omar Alkhani, in August 2013 after the couple left a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Aleppo, Syria, where he had been hired to fix the facility’s internet service. The ISIS fighters beat Alkhani but released him after two months.

The newly released video of Mueller was recorded within a month of her disappearance when she was 25, investigators said, adding that they likely intended to use her as a bargaining chip.

Read more at Fox News

Image courtesy of Mueller Family/ABC News

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The SOFREP News Team is a collective of professional military journalists. Brandon Tyler Webb is the SOFREP News Team's Editor-in-Chief. Guy D. McCardle is the SOFREP News Team's Managing Editor. Brandon and Guy both manage the SOFREP News Team.

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