Isis 'Beatles' claim contact with US hostage Kayla Mueller before she was killed in Syria
Two British Isis members dubbed "The Beatles" have reportedly admitted their involvement in the kidnapping of US hostage Kayla Mueller, who was taken by the group in Syria.
In new interviews and correspondence obtained by NBC News, Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheik appeared to confirm their roles in the captivity of the aid worker who is believed to have been killed in 2015.
It was not clear where NBC News obtained the interviews of the pair, who are being held in US military custody in Iraq, and producers did not immediately respond to The Independent's request for clarification.
Mr Elsheikh said in the interview that he "took an email from her myself" that was then used to contact Ms Mueller's family and demand a ransom.
"She was in a large room, it was dark, and she was alone, and...she was very scared," Mr Elsheikh said in the interview footage.
Mr Kotey said: "She was in a room by herself that no one would go in."
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NBC News also reviewed emails that appeared to confirm the account, with ISIS demanding the family pay 5 million euros or receive "a picture of Kayla's dead body".
Members the Isis cell nicknamed "The Beatles" had previously denied knowledge or contact with Ms Muller, and denied being members of the group lead by Mohammed "Jihadi John" Emwazi.
Ms Mueller is one of several US hostages who died while held by Isis, including James Foley, Steven Sotloff and Peter Kassig, as well as British victims David Haines and Alan Henning.
Isis claimed she was killed in a 2015 airstrike carried out by Jordan — but US authorities do not know exactly how she died.
The families of the US victims published a piece on the Washington Post on Thursday calling on the Trump administration to prosecute the two men in the US.
Authored by Diane and John Foley, Paula and Ed Kassig, Marsha and Carl Muller, and Shirley and Art Sotlorr, the families don't want the surviving members of Isis to escape "earthly justice" like Jihadi John and Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, both since killed in US operations.
"With the US military reducing its presence in the Middle East, we worry that the detainees will never face trial, just as hundreds of terrorists who were detained on US bases during the Iraq War were let go as the United States withdrew its forces," they wrote.
"The U.S. government should send a more powerful message: It doesn't matter who you are or where you are. If you harm American citizens, you will not escape. You will be hunted down. And when you are caught, you will face the full power of American law."
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