US could not confirm killing of American hostage

Washington, Feb 7 (IANS/EFE) US officials said Friday that they could not confirm whether an American held by the Islamic State(IS) had been killed in a Jordanian airstrike on the jihadi group.

Jordan, already a member of the US-led coalition fighting IS, stepped up airstrikes on the group this week following the release of a video showing a captured Jordanian air force pilot being burned alive by the militants.

IS said that 26-year-old Kayla Jean Mueller, an aide worker abducted in August 2013, died in Friday's bombardment of a building near the Syrian city of Raqqa, the IS' self-proclaimed capital.

"The criminal Crusader coalition aircraft bombarded a site outside the city of ar-Raqqah today (Friday) at noon while the people were performing the Friday prayer," IS said in a statement, according to SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks online postings by Islamist militant groups.

The IS message Mueller's personal information and a photo of the bombed building, but no images of the hostage.

The US cannot corroborate the claim made by IS, National Security Adviser Susan Rice said.

If the message turns out to be true, Mueller would be the fourth American to die in the hands of IS.

The group released videos of the beheadings of journalists Jim Foley and Steven Sotloff and aid worker Peter Kassig.

Mueller, a member of the Support to Life group, was working with a Spanish team of Doctors Without Borders along the Turkish-Syrian border at the time of her abduction.

--IANS/EFE

bb/