ISIS is demanding $6.6 million in ransom for an unidentified 26-year-old female hostage in Syria, ABC News reported on Tuesday. The woman was kidnapped a year ago while doing humanitarian relief work in the country.
The terrorist group is demanding the money and the release of U.S. prisoners for the life of the young woman, who was asked not to be identified by her family.
She is the third of at least four Americans who were known to be held by ISIS, which stands for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. American journalist James Foley was executed by the group in a video that was released online last week. Another writer, Steven Sotloff, was seen alive but under duress in the same video.
The terror group has also demanded the release of Aafia Siddiqui, an MIT-trained neuroscientist who was convicted of trying to kill U.S officials in 2008, according to a supporter of Siddiqui who has been in contact with the hostage victim's family.
Siddiqui's release has been a common demand of groups critical of U.S. policy in the Middle East and Southwest Asia. Siddiqui's family spoke out through supporters on Monday to say they were "very distraught" Siddiqui's name was brought up with the ransom request and tried to distance themselves from ISIS, according to Fox News.
"If the issue is true, we would like to state that our family does not have any connections to such groups or actions," reads a letter written by Siddiqui's family. "We believe in a struggle that is peaceful and dignified. Associating Aafia's name with acts of violence is against everything we are struggling for."
The family has been "traumatized by the thoughts that someone else could be harmed in the name of Aafia," Mauri Saalakhan of the Peace and Justice Foundation, who spoke on behalf of the Siddiqui family, told ABC News.
