An American aid worker who was killed in February while held hostage by Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria, was sexually abused by the group’s top leader, US officials tell ABC news.
Kayla Mueller, 26, was repeatedly raped by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, they said.
Counterterrorism officials made her family aware of the abuse in June.
Mueller was abducted while working in Aleppo, Syria, in 2013. IS said she was killed in a Jordanian air strike, but the US blames IS for her death.
“We were told Kayla was tortured, that she was the property of Baghdadi. We were told that in June by the government,” her parents, Carl and Marsha, told ABC News.
Baghdadi personally took the humanitarian aid worker to the home of another senior IS member – Abu Sayyaf – who was in charge of IS oil and gas until his death in a US special forces operation in May, ABC news, citing US officials, reports.
The channel said he regularly visited the compound where she was being held and repeatedly assaulted her.
Officials said they obtained some of the information about the abuse from at least two teenage Yezidi girls who were held hostage as sex slaves and found inside the Sayyaf compound at the time of the US attack.
Mueller was reportedly held by Sayyaf and his wife, Um Sayyaf, who was also captured by US special forces. in May
In a letter written in 2014, Mueller tried to reassure her family, saying that she had been treated with “utmost respect + kindness”.
Hundreds of young women and girls are believed to be being held as sex slaves by IS militants in areas under their control in Syria and Iraq.
