US congressman discusses with Syrian president return of body of American killed in Syria

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DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — U.S. Congressman Abraham Hamadeh made a brief visit to Syria where he discussed with the country’s interim president the return of the body of an American aid worker who was taken hostage and later confirmed dead in the war-torn country, his office said Monday.

Hamadeh’s visit to Syria comes as a search has been underway in remote parts of the country for the remains of people who were killed by the Islamic State group that once controlled large parts of Syria and Iraq before its territorial defeat six years ago.

Kayla Mueller, 26, was captured in northern Syria in August 2013 and her family and U.S. officials confirmed her death more than a year later. Hamadeh, an Arizona Republican, has vowed to return Mueller’s body — which has not yet been found — to her family.

Hamadeh’s office said he was in Syria for six hours to meet President Ahmad al-Sharaa to discuss the return of Mueller’s body to her family in Arizona. The statement added that Hamadeh also discussed the need to establish a secure humanitarian corridor for the safe delivery of medical and humanitarian aid to the southern province of Sweida that recently witnessed deadly clashes between pro-government fighters and gunmen from the country’s Druze minority.

A Syrian government official did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Hamadeh’s statement.

Dozens of foreigners, including aid workers and journalists, were killed by IS militants who declared a so-called caliphate in 2014. The militant group lost most of its territory in Iraq in late 2017 and was declared defeated in 2019 when it lost the last sliver of land it controlled in east Syria.

Since then, dozens of gravesites and mass graves have been discovered in northern Syria containing remains and bodies of people IS had abducted over the years.

American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, as well as humanitarian workers Mueller and Peter Kassig are among those killed by IS. None of the remains is believed to have been found.

Mueller, from Prescott, Arizona, was taken hostage with her boyfriend, Omar Alkhani, after leaving a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Aleppo, Syria, where he had been hired to fix the internet service for the hospital. Mueller had begged him to let her tag along because she wanted to do relief work in the war-ravaged country. Alkhani was released after two months, having been beaten.

In 2015, the Pentagon said Mueller died at the hands of IS and not in a Jordanian airstrike targeting the militant group as the extremists claimed earlier.

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Mroue reported from Beirut.