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Swedish teenager rescued from Isis in Iraq Swedish teenager rescued from Isis in Iraq
(35 minutes later)
The Iraqi Kurdish government says its troops have rescued a Swedish teenager from Islamic State near the Isis-held city of Mosul. Iraqi Kurdish troops have rescued a Swedish teenager from Islamic State near the extremist-controlled city of Mosul, the Kurdish government said on Tuesday.
It said in a statement that the rescue operation by Kurdish anti-terrorist forces took place on 17 February. The statement identified the young woman by name, saying she was a 16-year-old from the town of Boras who had been “misled” by an Isis member in Sweden to travel to Syria and later to Mosul. It said the rescue operation by the Kurdish anti-terrorist forces took place on 17 February near Mosul, 225 miles (360km) north-west of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.
It said Swedish authorities and the teenager’s family had asked the regional government for help in the case. The young woman is in Iraqi Kurdish territory and will be transferred to Sweden. The statement identified the young woman by name, saying she is a 16-year-old from the Swedish town of Boras who had been “misled” by an Isis member in Sweden to travel to Syria and later to Mosul.
More details soon … It also said the Swedish authorities and the teenager’s family had contacted the Iraqi Kurdish government and asked for help in locating and rescuing the girl from Isis.
The teenager is in Iraqi Kurdish territory and is being “provided the care afforded to her under international law,” the statement said, adding that she will be “transferred to Swedish authorities to return home once necessary arrangements” are made.
The statement provided no details on the rescue operation and did not say whether the teen was mistreated while with Isis.
Iraqi Kurdish officials in Irbil, the capital of the Kurdish semi-autonomous region in northern Iraq, declined to provide more details on the case.
Iraq’s second-largest city of Mosul was the first major city to fall into the hands of Isis militants during their blitz in June 2014, when the group swept across vast areas in the country’s north and west.
Mosul remains under Isis’s control as Iraqi forces, aided by airstrikes carried out by the US-led international coalition, are battling to reclaim ground. Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga forces are fighting Isis militants to the north and east of the city.