New U.S. media reports said Friday that American aid worker Kayla Mueller, killed this year while in the custody of Islamic State militants, was raped repeatedly by the group's leader before her death.
Media outlets quoted U.S. counterterrorism officials and spoke to Mueller's parents, who confirmed being told by U.S. officials in June that their daughter had been raped by Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
ABC News first reported al-Baghdadi's sexual abuse of Mueller and quoted her parents, Carl and Marsha Mueller, as saying that their daughter had been tortured and was "the property of al-Baghdadi."
ABC also said al-Baghdadi would sexually assault her in the house of his financial lieutenant, Abu Sayyaf, who was killed earlier this year in a U.S. commando raid on his compound.
The information about al-Baghdadi's actions came from sources including at least two Yazidi girls who were also sexually abused in Sayyaf's compound before their escape.
Mueller was captured in August 2013 in Aleppo in northern Syria and held by Islamic State militants for 18 months.
The Islamic State group claims Mueller was killed during a Jordanian airstrike in February. U.S. officials have called into question the circumstances of her death.
