Obama misremembered her being one of the hostages to be rescued along with Foley in August.
Kayla Jean Mueller, the U.S. aid worker whose death as a captive of Islamic State extremists was confirmed Tuesday, was among the hostages sought in a failed U.S. rescue attempt last year, President Barack Obama said.
Obama, in an interview with the website BuzzFeed on Tuesday, confirmed for the first time publicly that Mueller was in the group that included journalist James Foley that U.S. special operations forces tried to rescue in northern Syria last August, only to discover they had been moved.
The raid was initially disclosed by the White House after Islamic State on Aug. 19 released a video of Foley’s beheading.
“We devoted enormous resources and always devote enormous resources to freeing captives or hostages anywhere in the world,” Obama said in the interview.
He said the U.S. will continue to refuse ransom demands from terrorists even though denying them is “as tough as anything I do.”[…]
At least one more U.S. hostage still is being held in the region, Earnest said. While he declined to identify the hostage, the family of freelance journalist Austin Tice has said he’s being held in Syria, though not by Islamic State.
Tice’s parents have pushed for more family involvement in hostage recovery and for families to have a say in the review Obama ordered of U.S. hostage policy. That review will be finished later this spring, Earnest said.