"Islamic State 'sentenced' US hostage to death last year"
The young American hostage who Islamic State says was killed in a Jordanian air strike was condemned to death by the militant group last year, according to an American Muslim activist.
Islamic State seized aid worker Kayla Mueller in 2013 in northern Syria and initially gave her a "life sentence" in retaliation for the jailing in Texas of a Pakistani woman whose case is a well-known cause among Islamist militants, said activist Mauri Saalakhan, who leads a U.S. campaign to free the Pakistani.
The militant group said on Friday that Mueller, a 26-year-old from Prescott, Arizona, was killed when Jordanian fighter jets bombed a building where she was being held. Jordan expressed doubt about the claim and U.S. authorities said they could not confirm it.
