On Friday, Site Intelligence Group reported that ISIS said the last remaining American hostage held by the group, a 26-year-old female aid worker, was killed by a Jordanian air strike. The woman's death is so far unconfirmed, and it's unclear when she might have killed or if she was actually executed by the group. “The failed Jordanian aircraft killed an American female hostage,”
said the message. “No mujahid was injured in the bombardment, and all praise is due to Allah.” Mujahid means fighter.
The
woman was captured in Syria in August 2013, along with a group of other aid workers who have reportedly been released. U.S. officials and her family had requested that her name not be published lest it put her in further jeopardy. ISIS had reportedly demanded more than $6 million for her release.
ISIS: American Female Hostage Is Dead - The Daily Beast
Jordan: Claim of killed US hostage is ISIS 'PR stunt' - Business Insider
Jordan and US officials are casting doubt on a claim made Friday by the jihadist group ISIS (also known as ISIS or ISIL) that an American hostage was killed by a Jordanian airstrike.
According to CNN, Jordanian Interior Minister Hussein Majali
called the claim as "another PR stunt by ISIS."
"They tried to cause problems internally in Jordan and haven't succeeded," Majali said. "They are now trying to drive a wedge between the coalition with this latest low PR stunt."
Additionally, a Jordanian government spokesperson
told NBC News that the Islamic State's claim didn't make any sense because the airstrikes had targeted weapons depots.
"Why would she be held in a weapons depot?" the spokesperson asked.
US officials were more cautious, but agreed the Islamic State does not have any proof the 26-year-old female aid worker was in fact killed. The US
previously requested her name be withheld to protect her safety.
"We are obviously deeply concerned by these reports. We have not at this time seen any evidence that corroborates ISIL’s claim," National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan told Business Insider.
Jordan
launched a wave of airstrikes against the Islamic State on Thursday after the jihadists released a gruesome video of a Jordanian hostage, pilot Moaz al-Kasasbe, being burned alive. The country is part of the US-led coalition that is vying to push back the Islamic State, which has seized wide swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria. According
to the SITE intelligence service, the Islamic State claims the US hostage was killed by a Jordanian airstrike against a building in Syria's ar-Raqqah province.
Rita Katz, SITE's director, also expressed some doubt as to whether the jihadist claim is genuine.
"It's possible that ISIS killed her to blame it on the Coalition," she
wrote on Twitter.