ISIS Possibly Using Kayla Mueller’s Death as Psywar Tactic

Feb 07, 2015 11:18 AM EST

(Photo : REUTERSREUTERS/Petra News Agency ) A Royal Jordanian Air Force plane takes off from an air base to strike the Islamic state in the Syrian city of Raqqa February 5, 2015.

In the past, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) used social media to announce the beheading of its American, British and Japanese hostages. Although there were initial doubts about the authenticity of the videos, eventually the world believed that those unfortunate captives lost their heads.

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However, for the alleged death of 26-year-old American aid worker Kayla Mueller due to the Jordan airstrikes, ISIS failed to produce evidence of her demise except for photos of a flattened building, reports NBC.

Another dubious claim is that the America hostage was killed in Raqqa, but the U.S., which leads the coalition that bombards the areas in Iraq and Syria controlled by the caliphate, says there were no Jordanian or American airstrikes near Raqqa.

The skepticism of the coalition stems also from ISIS' record of making big claims that the extremist group could not support with evidence, points out Daveed Gastenstein-Ross, senior fellow of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

The best example was its offer to trade captured Jordanian pilot 1^st Lieutenant Moab al-Kasasbeh for female suicide bomber Sajida al-Rahwan when the jihadists had actually burned the captured aviator while negotiations were ongoing.

Steven David, John Hopkins University professor of political science, believes that like Kasasbeh, ISIS had executed Mueller a long time ago and is just using the Jordanian airstrikes, led by no less than King Abdullah, to scare the coalition into holding its fire for fear that another hostage's life may be at stake.

However, reports indicate that ISIS is actually running out of western hostages that is why it has turned to Japanese captives lately.

Mueller was abducted in August 2013 in Syria, although this is the first time that her name is publicly made on request of her family.

Besides Mueller, ISIS did not mention if any other hostages were killed as collateral damage in the Jordanian airstrikes. Jordan also questioned why would Mueller be detained inside a training center of weapons storage facility and not a proper jail, which are more indicators of ISIS's lack of logic and pack of lies.