Kayla Mueller, the American aid worker
reported dead this week by the Islamic State (ISIS), may have been given to an ISIS commander as a bride during her captivity,
CNN reports.
The network cited U.S. intelligence and government officials as saying it was not clear whether the 26-year-old Mueller was coerced, sold or forced into the relationship, but information emailed to Mueller's family on Tuesday included photos of her wearing Muslim garb and one of her body wrapped in a burial shroud.
Mueller, a Christian, may have converted to Islam as have other captives in an effort to curry favor with her captors, former CIA analyst Aki Peritz told CNN.
"These hostages are under severe duress for a very long time, threatened with death and so forth," Peritz said.
"ISIS didn't see her as a hostage or a bargaining chip,"
ABC News quoted a counter-terrorism official as saying.
Officials told ABC that there were "reflections," or indirect indications Mueller was at certain places. Those included ISIS fighters mentioning her in phone calls or seen guarding sites she may have been held.
Mueller was taken captive in Syria in 2013 after leaving a shift at a hospital where she worked with Doctors Without Borders. ISIS claimed she was killed in a Jordanian airstrike this month.
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