OBAMA CONFIRMS DEATH OF US HOSTAGE HELD BY ISLAMIC STATE

Whasington, 21 Rabi ‘ul Akhir 1436/11 February 2015 (MINA) – President Barack Obama Tuesday confirmed the death of US hostage Kayla Jean Mueller, as warplanes from Gulf ally the UAE rejoined the battle against her captors from the Islamic State group.

Obama vowed that Washington would hunt down the militants.

“No matter how long it takes, the United States will find and bring to justice the terrorists who are responsible for Kayla’s captivity and death,” he said in a statement, Ma’an News Agency quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

Mueller, a 26-year-old aid worker and activist from Arizona, was captured in August 2013 in Aleppo, the war-ravaged city in northern Syria.

IS claimed last week she had been killed in an air strike by a Jordanian warplane in Raqqa, the militant group’s self-proclaimed “capital” also in Syria.

The White House said that over the weekend IS had sent Mueller’s family a “private message” that was “authenticated” by intelligence, allowing them to confirm her death.

“Our hearts are breaking for our only daughter, but we will continue on in peace, dignity, and love for her,” her parents Carl and Marsha Mueller said.

In a letter from captivity in early 2014, Muller said she was “completely unharmed” by her captors but heavy-hearted about the toll it must be taken on her family.

“Just the thought of you all sends me into a fit of tears,” she wrote in the letter released by her family.

Pilot’s gruesome death

Early Tuesday, warplanes from the United Arab Emirates launched anti-IS air strikes as an important Arab ally in the US-led coalition resumed combat operations.

The F-16s hit their targets and returned safely to base, the UAE military said, without saying what their targets were.

Following the December crash and capture in Syria of Jordanian F-16 pilot Maaz al-Kassasbeh, the UAE withdrew from coalition strike missions, fearing for the safety of its pilots.

The militants later killed Kassasbeh by burning him alive, releasing gruesome video footage of his “execution.”

IS said Mueller was buried under rubble on Friday after a raid by a Jordanian warplane in Raqqa, a claim Amman’s foreign minister rejected as “an old sick trick used by terrorists and despots for decades.”

The coalition began airstrikes against IS in Syria on Sept. 23, but has pointedly refused to coordinate with Damascus.

On Tuesday, the Pentagon said coalition aircraft had launched one strike in eastern Syria in the 24 hours to 0600 GMT, and also pounded the militants in Iraq with 11 strikes.

‘There is no dialogue’

Syria has grudgingly accepted the airstrikes against IS, but has repeatedly criticized the coalition for failing to coordinate with it.

It says the raids cannot defeat IS unless the international community starts cooperating with Syrian troops on the ground.

In an interview broadcast by the BBC Tuesday, Syrian President Bashar Assad confirmed there was no cooperation with the coalition, members of which he accused of backing “terrorism” — in an apparent reference to their support for other rebel groups fighting to overthrow him.

“Sometimes, they convey a message, a general message. There is no dialogue. There’s, let’s say, information, but not dialogue,” Assad said.

Assad said the US-led strikes had the potential to help his government, but that so far they were not sufficiently “serious” to do so.

The Syrian regime has been accused of indiscriminate bombardment of civilians in rebel-held areas, including with barrel bombs — crude munitions packed with explosives and shrapnel.

But Assad flatly denied the allegation as a “childish story.”

“I haven’t heard of (the) army using barrels, or maybe cooking pots,” he said, laughing.

He also denied claims that government forces had used chemical weapons in an August 2013 attack outside Damascus that killed up to 1,400 people.

“Who verified who threw that gas on who?” he asked.

Challenged on whether his government did so, he said “definitely not,” adding that the reported death toll was “exaggerated”.

Since Syria gave up its chemical arsenal after the 2013 attack, there have been persistent reports of the use of chlorine gas.

Assad said his forces were “definitely not” using chlorine as a weapon.

More than 210,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began with anti-government protests in March 2011. (T/P010/P3)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)