Woman kidnapped a decade ago freed in secret operation
Source: X
A 21-year-old woman kidnapped by Islamic State militants in Iraq a decade ago has been freed from Gaza this week in a secret operation months in the making.
The woman is a member of the ancient Yazidi religious minority who live mostly in Iraq and Syria.
More than 5000 Yazidis were killed and thousands more kidnapped in an IS campaign in 2014 that the United Nations has said constituted genocide.
She was freed after more than four months of efforts that involved several attempts that failed due to the difficult security situation resulting from Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, Silwan Sinjaree, chief of staff of Iraq’s foreign minister, told Reuters.
She has been identified as Fawzia Sido.
Reuters could not reach the woman directly for comment. Iraqi officials said she was resting after having been reunited with her family in northern Iraq.
Iraqi officials had been in contact with the woman for months and passed on her information to US officials. They arranged for her exit from Gaza with the help of Israel, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Iraq and Israel have no diplomatic ties.
The Israeli military said it had co-ordinated with the US embassy in Jerusalem and “other international actors” in the operation to free Sido.
It said in a statement the woman’s captor had been killed during the Gaza war, presumably by an Israeli strike. She then fled to a hideout inside the Gaza Strip.
“In a complex operation co-ordinated between Israel, the United States, and other international actors, she was recently rescued in a secret mission from the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom Crossing,” it said.
After entering Israel, she continued on to Jordan through the Allenby Bridge Crossing and from there returned to her family in Iraq, the military said.
A State Department spokesperson said the US on Tuesday “helped to safely evacuate from Gaza a young Yezidi woman to be reunited with her family in Iraq”.
The spokesperson said the woman was kidnapped from her home in Iraq aged 11 and sold and trafficked to Gaza.
Her captor was recently killed, allowing her to escape and seek repatriation, the spokesperson said.
Sinjaree said she was in good physical condition but was traumatised by her time in captivity and by the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani had directly followed up on the issue with US officials on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York last month, according to Khalaf Sinjar, Sudani’s adviser for Yazidi affairs.
More than 6000 Yazidis were captured by IS militants from Sinjar region in Iraq in 2014. Many were sold into sexual slavery or trained as child soldiers and taken across borders, including to Turkey and Syria.
Over the years, more than 3500 have been rescued or freed, according to Iraqi authorities. About 2600 are still missing.
Many are feared dead but Yazidi activists say they believe hundreds are still alive.