Arizona Congressman Abe Hamadeh says he requested the repatriation of Kayla Mueller’s remains during a recent visit to Syria. The Prescott woman died there in 2015 after being abducted by ISIS.
Mueller was a humanitarian activist captured in Aleppo, Syria, in 2013 along with her boyfriend Omar Alkhan — who was later released. They were taken after leaving a Doctors Without Borders hospital where Alkahni was installing communications equipment.
Mueller had come to Syria from Turkey where she was working to help Syrian refugees.
Mueller spent more than a year as a hostage and endured torture despite several attempts to rescue her. She then died under murky circumstances.
ISIS claimed that Mueller was killed in an American airstrike, but the Pentagon disputed that claim.
Two ISIS members involved in Mueller’s torture and death were sentenced to life imprisonment in the United States.
Hamadeh said in a statement that he has vowed to return Mueller’s body to her family.
In addition to discussing the return of her remains, he stated his trip involved meeting with President Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa and urging Syrian government officials to adopt President Trump’s “Abraham Accords” — a series of agreements to establish partnership between Israel and a handful of Arab nations.
“Congressman Hamadeh remains supportive of President Donald J. Trump’s decision to lift some sanctions in order to assist the Syrian people and their new government in rebuilding their country. However, he believes that Congress should play a key role in this process to ensure that the Syrian government is upholding its commitments to the U.S. As a result, Congressman Hamadeh and his staff have engaged in interagency efforts to ascertain what is, and is not, happening on the ground in Syria amid this current conflict,” Hamadeh’s statement said.
Hamadeh did not respond to a request for comment.
