US citizen Kayla Mueller, held hostage since 2013, killed after air raid hits building in Syria's Raqqa, ISIL says.
SITE Intelligence, a monitoring group, published a statement ISIL posted on social media on Friday.
The statement identified the woman as Kayla Jean Mueller and said she was killed during Muslim prayers - which usually take place around midday on Fridays - in airstrikes that targeted "the same location for more than an hour" in the group's main stronghold.
No ISIL fighters were killed in the airstrikes, the statement further claimed. It published photos allegedly of the bombed site, showing a severely damaged brown colored three-story building - but no images of Mueller.
Bernadette Meehan, the National Security Council spokesman, told Al Jazeera that the US has not seen any evidence suggesting the armed group's claim is true.
"We are obviously deeply concerned by these reports. We have not at this time seen any evidence that corroborates ISIL's claim," she said.
Mueller, an aid worker from Arizona state who disappeared in August 2013 from the Syrian city of Aleppo, is believed to be the only American hostage held by ISIL.
Her identity was never disclosed by the media out of concerns for her safety.
ISIL has beheaded and shot dead hundreds of its captives - mainly Syrian and Iraqi soldiers - during its sweep across the two countries, and has celebrated its mass killings in extremely graphic videos.
If Mueller's death is confirmed, she would be the fourth American citizen to die while in the captivity of ISIL. Three other Americans, journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and aid worker Peter Kassig were beheaded by the group last year.
Two British captives David Haines and Alan Henning were also killed by the group.
The claim comes a week after ISIL released a graphic video showing the killing of Jordanian pilot Moaz al-Kassasbeh. Jordan executed two ISIL-linked death-row prisoners after vowing an "earth-shattering" response to avenge the pilot's death.
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