By Walid Shoebat (Shoebat Exclusive)

The Islamic State (IS) claimed that an American female hostage was killed when a Jordanian aircraft struck the building in which she was located in Syria’s ar-Raqqah governorate.

In a report distributed on Twitter on February 6, 2015, the group stated that Kayla Jean Mueller was killed when she was buried beneath the rubble of the building. Pictures show the alleged targeted site.

It had long been known that ISIS had a female U.S. aid worker in captivity. CBS News reported in August 2014 that ISIS had demanded a ransom of $6.6 million for her. She was being held in Syria. Mueller was captured there in August 2013 with a group of other aid workers. Those other aid workers have since been released.

The media says that Kayla Jean Mueller worked at the hospital of Aleppo at the time of the abduction, in August 2013. At the time, “there is no evidence” that the cooperating American Kayla Jean Mueller has been killed in a bombing of the Jordanian fighter against targets jihadists in Raqqa, in northern Syria says the Pentagon.

“A gimmick that has to do with public relations”, said officials of the Jordanian government – cited by CNN accusing the jihadists to resort once again to the propaganda denouncing the death of the American woman held hostage during the air raids of Jordan.

ISIS has a track-record of lying about hostage deaths. On February 6, a video showing the execution of a Jordanian pilot was released. The video was dated from early January. Despite this, the group had been negotiating for his release in exchange for a failed suicide bomber, Sajida al-Rishawi. The day after Kasasbeh’s execution video was uploaded, al-Rishawi was hanged by the Jordanian government.

WHO IS KAYLA MUELLER?

The Daily Courier says of Muller that she was a volunteer career began with her interest in the Darfur Crisis. She’s a native of Prescott, Arizona. Her parents are Carl and Marsha Mueller. The Daily Courier in Prescott reported on her enrolling at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff in 2007.

Prescott native Kayla Mueller has spent most of her 19 years in the same house and attended local schools.

However, the outside world is at her back door, and she is broadening her horizons by moving away from home for the first time to attend Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. An undeclared major, she said that she will consider anthropology, environmental science or international relations.

“I love cultures and language and learning about people’s cultures,” she said.

Her interest in other cultures and world affairs might explain her activism on behalf of genocide victims in the Darfur region of Sudan.

She has volunteered for three years with the Save Darfur Coalition. She wrote letters and placed calls to members of Congress, and conducted two silent walks locally.

Mueller, daughter of Marsha and Carl Mueller, also has acted locally as well as globally. She became involved with the Youth Count volunteer program in Prescott Valley five years ago, and that connection led to numerous projects.

Projects included successfully applying for a $5,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Environmental Protection to design a program at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Yavapai College.

The volunteer work took Mueller and Cindy Craig, program director of the Youth Volunteer Corps at Youth Count, to the national conference of Afterschool Alliance in July in Washington, D.C. She said that she and Craig gave a talk about environmental and intergenerational programs.

Mueller, who graduated this spring from Tri-City College Prep High School in Prescott, said Dave Somerville was her favorite teacher in high school. He taught science classes before retiring at the end of the school year.

“She is very organized, very dedicated to environmental issues, and she has a very good mind,” Somerville said. “She can reason things out very well.”

Somerville said that he can envision Mueller running an activism group, or getting involved in national or international politics.

Others are recognizing Mueller’s achievements. Craig successfully nominated her for the 2007 Joy of Giving, Youth Services Award from the Yavapai County Community Foundation. She is due to receive the honor in November.

Mueller said she plans to continue her volunteer work while attending NAU.

“I always feel that no matter how much I give I always get back more through these projects,” Mueller said.

In one story of her work in Syria, a man searching for his Syrian family after their refugee camp in Turkey was bombed was reunited with a 6-year-old relative thanks to Prescott resident Kayla Mueller.

After looking frantically for missing family members, he eventually found an 11-year-old girl alive at a hospital, but learned his wife had died, and could not find the boy.

The man turned to Mueller, who works in Turkey with the international humanitarian aid agency Support to Life. He gave her a video image of the boy, and she later found him after he came out of surgery at another hospital.

Mueller spoke Wednesday about her experiences to the Prescott Kiwanis Club, where her father Carl Mueller is a member.

“This story is not rare in Syria,” Mueller said. “This is the reality for Syrians two and a half years on. When Syrians hear I’m an American, they ask, ‘Where is the world?’ All I can do is cry with them, because I don’t know.”

Mueller said after learning more about the situation in Syria, she was drawn to help and finds now she “can’t do enough.”

Mueller said she’s heard of children being hurt by unexploded bombs, women being forced into early marriages, and children being forced to fight for both sides.

Children as young as 8 are working because there’s no access to school, Mueller added, as schools have been targeted by the Syrian government for bombing. People who have lost their homes to the bombs and fighting are living in groups in caves and large businesses, Mueller said.

“Syrians are dying by the thousands, and they’re fighting just to talk about the rights we have,” Mueller said.

“For as long as I live, I will not let this suffering be normal. (I will not let this be) something we just accept,” Mueller said. “It’s important to stop and realize what we have, why we have it and how privileged we are. And from that place, start caring and get a lot done.”

As part of her work, Mueller draws, paints and plays with Syrian children in the refugee camps and helps with psycho-social interventions.

“We give and get joy from playing with these children,” Mueller said.

During one activity, Mueller said they asked the Syrian children to draw their ideal place, and each child drew his or her own home.

“They told us everything about their house,” Mueller said. “They said, ‘There’s a tree in front of my house that I climb.’ ‘There’s this squeaky door that my dad never fixed.’

“Half the 1.5 million refugees the U.N. has registered are children,” Mueller continued. “In the chaos of waking up in the middle of the night and being shelled, we’re hearing of more children being separated from their families by accident.”

Kiwanis Member Kurt Vogel asked what actions Mueller would recommend.

“A no-fly zone over refugee camps would be number one,” Mueller said.

The U.S. is one of the biggest donors to humanitarian relief, but Mueller said she believes the media is not portraying the situation accurately, because people would react if they saw what she has.

“The people of the United States would see that something needs to be done,” Mueller said.

Mueller also works with a nongovernment organization whose name translates to Dignity to help Syrian refugee women develop the skills they need to support themselves and their family. For more information about the project and how to help, email [email protected]

Pray for the best.