American hostage Kayla Mueller was repeatedly raped by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State extremist group, before her death in February, US intelligence officials told her family in June.
“They told us that he married her and we all understand what that means,” said Carl Mueller, Kayla’s father, on Friday, AP reported.
Her mother, Marsha Mueller, added, “Kayla did not marry this man. He took her to his room and he abused her and she came back crying.”
The news is but the latest in a litany of horrors perpetrated by the IS, which has beheaded, burned and crucified captives while passing around women as sex slaves.
Mueller was reportedly held for a time by IS financier Abu Sayyaf and his wife, known as Umm Sayyaf. Al-Baghdadi took Mueller as a “wife” and repeatedly raped her when he visited, according to a Yazidi teenager who was held with Mueller and escaped in October 2014.
The 14-year-old made her way to Iraqi Kurdistan, where she talked to US commandos in November 2014. Intelligence agencies corroborated her account and American officials passed it on to her parents in June.
Umm Sayyaf confirmed that al-Baghdadi had “owned” Kayla during Umm Sayyaf’s lengthy American interrogation in Iraq, the Muellers said they were told by American officials.
Mueller was held with three other women, all Yazidis. All were sexually abused.