Swedish teenage girl rescued from Islamic State

A teenage Swedish girl has spoken of the 'hard life' she experienced being held by Islamic State militants in Iraq. She was rescued in a raid by Kurdish special forces last week, the autonomous region's security council said in a statement on Tuesday.

Marlin Stivani Nivarlain (K24 news channel)

Marlin Stivani Nivarlain (K24 news channel) Source: Supplied

The 16-year-old travelled from Sweden to Syria last year and later crossed into Iraq, where she was rescued near the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul on February 17 by forces from the Kurdish counter terrorism department.

The Kurdish security council identified the rescued teenager as coming from the Swedish town of Boras and said she had been "misled" into making the journey to Syria by an Islamic State member in Sweden.

"The Kurdistan Region Security Council was called upon by Swedish authorities and members of her family to assist in locating and rescuing her from ISIL," the statement read.

In an exclusive interview with Kurdistan 24, the teenager said she had travelled to Syria with her boyfriend.

"He said he wants to go to ISIS and I said to him, ‘OK, no problem,’ because I didn’t know what ISIS means, what Islam is," she told K24.

The teenager said life in Syria was "really hard," living in a house with no water, electricity or money.
"When I had a phone I started to contact my mum and I said to her that I want to go home," she said in the interview.

The teenager is currently in the Kurdistan region and will be handed over to Swedish authorities so she can return home once necessary arrangements are made, it added.

Security services estimate that hundreds of Western men and women have left home to join Islamic State since they overran large parts of Iraq and Syria in June 2014.

Earlier this month, a mother who took her 14-month-old son to Syria to join Islamic State fighters was jailed for six years by a British court.

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2 min read
Published 24 February 2016 12:31pm
Updated 24 February 2016 3:48pm
Source: SBS, Reuters

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