Diane Foley, whose son James Foley was beheaded by ISIL on August 19, 2014, made the remarks on Saturday, referring to the alleged death of another American captive, Kayla Jean Mueller.
In a statement on Friday, the Takfiris claimed that Mueller, an American journalist from Prescott, Arizona, whom they were holding in the Syrian city of Raqqa, was killed when Jordanian fighter jets bombed a building where she was being held.
"Kayla, along with our son and others were held for nearly two years and there were many opportunities along the way: several times when the captors reached out, several times when returning hostages brought sensitive information. And yet nothing was done to save our young Americans. So that's the part that deeply concerns me," Foley told ABC News.
Mueller’s family does not believe she’s dead. In a statement Friday, her relatives said they were “still hopeful that Kayla is alive.”
oley said the US “intelligence obviously was poor -- it wasn't good enough” to save the lives of the American hostages.
Meanwhile, a US official said Foley's assessment was correct, adding, “Washington took too long. We missed the hostages by two days. We could have had all the hostages -- all of them."
Other reports quoted an activist as saying that Mueller had been “sentenced to death” by the extremists last year.