The Pentagon said Tuesday it is looking into whether Umm Sayyaf, the wife of the Islamic State leader killed in a Delta Force raid in Syria over the weekend, had a role in the abduction of slain U.S. hostage Kayla Mueller.
Mueller was a 26-year-old humanitarian aid worker who was kidnapped in Aleppo, Syria, in 2013. The Islamic State reported she was killed during coalition airstrikes over Syria in February. While her death has been confirmed, how she died and how the Islamic State was able to keep her captive remains a key interest for U.S. forces.
“We are very interested in what the Sayyafs know about [the Islamic State’s] hostage operations,” said Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren.
The Pentagon is looking into the possibility that Umm Sayyaf was in charge of the Islamic State’s hostage-taking operation. “That’s what we are trying to determine through the debriefing of the wife. We are not prepared to make a statement one way or the other,” Warren said.
Abu Sayyaf, the assumed financial leader of the Islamic State, was killed over the weekend when two dozen Delta Force commandoes launched a successful raid on his compound, killing him and capturing Umm Sayyaf. She was taken to a facility in Iraq for questioning.
