President Obama says that Kayla Mueller, the American woman confirmed dead while a hostage of Islamic State, was among those the US tried to rescue last year in Syria.
“I deployed an entire operation – at significant risk – to rescue not only her but the other individuals who had been held, and probably missed them by a day or two,” Obama tells BuzzFeed in an interview.
He says that telling hostages’ families that the US will not pay ransom is “as tough as anything I do,” but that the US had done everything it could to free Mueller, including the failed rescue attempt.
It was revealed following the beheading in August 2014 of US journalist James Foley that the US military had tried unsuccessfully to rescue a number of hostages, but found that the hostages had been moved before the raid.
[Displayed with permission from dpa German Press Agency]
