US woman held hostage in Syria, US
citizen killed
Date August 27, 2014
An image from a propaganda video released earlier this year by Islamic State, formerly known as ISIL. Photo: AFP
Washington: The Islamic State militant group is holding hostage a young American woman who was
doing humanitarian aid work in Syria, a family representative said on Tuesday. The 26-year-old
woman is the third American known to have been kidnapped by the militant group. US officials also
confirmed that an American citizen fighting for Islamic State was killed in Syria.
Islamic State recently threatened to kill American hostages to avenge the crushing air strikes in Iraq
against militants advancing on Mount Sinjar and the Kurdish capital of Erbil.
The 26-year-old woman was captured last year while working with three humanitarian groups in
Syria. A representative for the family and US officials asked that the woman not be identified out of
fear for her safety. All spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss
the issue publicly.
Separately, a 33-year-old American who was fighting for Islamic State was killed in recent days in a
battle with a rival group in Syria, a senior US official said on Tuesday.
The authorities identified the man as Douglas McAuthur McCain of San Diego. According to a
human rights group that tracks the conflict in Syria, McCain was killed in a battle in Marea, a city in
northern Syria near the Turkish border.
Islamic State has been fighting the Free Syrian Army, a rival rebel group backed by the United States,
for control of the city. There have been reports in recent days that the Free Syrian Army has seized a
number of towns from Islamic State and killed several dozen of its fighters, two of whom were
Americans.
More than a week ago, freelance journalist James Foley of Rochester, New Hampshire, was beheaded
by the Islamic State group, which kidnapped him in November 2012. Foley, 40, had worked in a
number of conflict zones across the Mid-East, including Iraq, Libya and Syria. He was in northern
Syria on assignment for Agence France-Press and the Boston-based news organisation GlobalPost
when the car he was riding in was stopped by four militants in a contested battle zone that both Sunni
rebel fighters and government forces were trying to control.
The Islamic State video of Foley's beheading also showed another of the missing American
journalists, Steven Sotloff, and warned he would be killed next if US air strikes continued. US
officials believe the video was made days before its release and have grown increasingly worried
about Sotloff's fate.
Other American hostages have been held by other militant groups, including Peter Curtis from
Boston, who was recently released by al-Nusra Front, a rival Sunni militant group. Another US
freelance journalist, Austin Tice of Houston, disappeared in Syria in August 2012 and is believed to
be held by the same organisation. Tice was working for The Washington Post, McClatchy
Newspapers and other media outlets when he was kidnapped.
Islamic State is seeking to create a caliphate across parts of Syria and Iraq. The militant group is so
ruthless in its attacks against all people they consider heretics or infidels that it has been disowned by
al-Qaeda's leaders.
In its annual report last November, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists estimated at
least 30 journalists have been kidnapped or have disappeared in Syria — held and threatened with
death by extremists or taken captive by gangs seeking ransom. The CPJ described the widespread
seizure of journalists as unprecedented and largely unreported by news organisations in the hope that
keeping the kidnappings out of public view may help to negotiate the captives' release.
The group reported 52 journalists have been killed since Syria's civil war began in early 2011 and
documented at least 24 other journalists who disappeared earlier this year but are now safe.
Separately, the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders cited higher figures, saying at least 60 "news
providers" are being detained and more than 110 have been killed.
AP, New York Times