Yazidi woman rescued from Gaza 10 years after being taken captive by ISIL
Al Jazeera
The now 21-year-old woman has returned home to her family in Iraq after complex rescue involving Israel, US and Jordan.
A 21-year-old woman kidnapped by Islamic State fighters in Iraq in 2014 was freed from Gaza this week in a secret operation that involved Iraq, Israel, Jordan and the United States.
The Yazidis, whose faith is rooted in Zoroastrianism, mostly live in Iraq and Syria. They were targeted by ISIL in Iraq’s Sinjar district in a campaign that killed nearly 10,000 people in a matter of days and saw thousands of women kidnapped, raped or abused as sex slaves.
The woman was taken at the age of 11 and later trafficked into Gaza.
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 war in Gaza, Silwan Sinjaree, chief of staff of Iraq’s foreign minister, told the Reuters news agency on Thursday.
The Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs praised the cooperation between the US and Jordan.
