White House Official Accidentally Reveals Name Of American Woman Held Hostage By ISIS

A White House official has accidentally confirmed that an American woman is still being held captive by Islamic State militants, saying the government is doing all possible efforts for her release, NBC News reported.

Denis McDonough, White House chief of staff, made the grievous verbal mistake while being interviewed over the weekend by ABC, in reaction to an announcement on Saturday by the Islamic State, or ISIS, that it had executed a Japanese man.

"As it relates to our hostages, we are obviously continuing to work those matters very, very aggressively. We are sparing no expense and sparing no effort, both in trying to make sure that we know where they are and make sure that we're prepared to do anything we must to try to get them home," McDonough said.

"But [the woman's] family knows how strongly the President feels about this and we will continue to work this."

The chief ofs accidentally mentioned the woman's first name, the White House admitted later in a statement.

Her family believes that revealing her name would further jeopardize her life.

The woman was taken hostage on Aug. 4, 2013 while serving as a humanitarian worker in the region.

The ISIS has already demanded a $6.6 million ransom for her freedom, and/or the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist convicted of attempted murder by a New York federal court in 2010.

Other aid workers are believed to have already been set free, The Independent reported.

McDonough's slip-of-the-tongue revelation of the hostage's name might not have been helpful, according to one senior U.S. government official. "I think it's fair to say that we do not believe that it helps for the names of individual hostages to be in public," Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes said. "I don't want to speak for Denis, but, I mean, I think we're being very forthright in saying that we don't think that's constructive to securing their release."

The ISIS has previously executed American aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig, American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and British aid workers Alan Henning and David Haines.