Kayla Mueller, the American human rights activist taken captive by the Islamic State in 2013, was raped by the terrorist’s group leader Abu Bakr Baghdadi, according to her family and U.S. government sources.
An account of al-Baghdadi’s repeated abuse of Mueller provided by a Yazidi girl who was held hostage with Mueller but later escaped was confirmed by the Associated Press.
“They told us that he married her, and we all understand what that means,” Carl Mueller, Mueller’s father, told the news organization.
Mueller, a native of Arizona, was abducted by the Islamic State in the summer of 2013 near Aleppo, Syria, while on a humanitarian mission. She was then held by the group until February of this year, when her family was informed by members of the Islamic State that Mueller had been killed in a Jordanian airstrike on ISIS’s capital of Raqqa.
The Islamic State has made the systemic rape of women and girls of non-Muslim religions part of their ideology and practice, according to a report by the New York Times. Members of the militant group are permitted or even encouraged to sexually abuse women of different religious backgrounds, which has resulted in the rape and torment of thousands of Yazidi and other captives.
Atrocities such as crucifixions, burnings and dramatic beheadings of prisoners have all been a hallmark of the Islamic State’s rise to power as they have gained control over parts of Syria and Iraq last year.
Mueller was held by al-Baghdadi with three Yazidi girls, according to her family. All three suffered sexual abuse at his hands. She decided not to escape with the one who made it to U.S. soldiers, worrying that her appearance would be a giveaway as they tried to evade recapture by the Islamic State.
