Yazidi girl free of Gaza in U.S.-led operation after decade in captivity By Reuters

By Timour Azhari

BEIRUT (Reuters) – A 21-year-old girl kidnapped by Islamic State militants in Iraq greater than a decade in the past was free of Gaza this week in an operation led by america and involving Jordan and the Baghdad authorities, Iraqi and U.S. officers mentioned.

The girl is a member of the traditional Yazidi spiritual minority largely present in Iraq and Syria which noticed greater than 5,000 members killed and hundreds extra kidnapped in a 2014 marketing campaign that the U.N. has mentioned constituted genocide.

She was freed after greater than 4 months of efforts that concerned a number of makes an attempt that didn’t because of the troublesome safety scenario ensuing from Israel’s offensive in Gaza, Silwan Sinjaree, chief of workers of Iraq’s international minister, informed Reuters.

Officers didn’t present particulars of how she was ultimately freed, and Jordanian and U.S. embassy officers in Baghdad didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.

Reuters couldn’t attain the lady immediately for remark.

A State Division spokesperson mentioned america on Oct. 1 “helped to soundly evacuate from Gaza a younger Yezidi girl to be reunited together with her household in Iraq.”

The spokesperson mentioned she was kidnapped from her house in Iraq aged 11 and offered and trafficked to Gaza. Her captor was lately killed, permitting her to flee and search repatriation, the spokesperson mentioned.

Sinjaree mentioned she was in good bodily situation however was traumatized by her time in captivity and by the dire humanitarian scenario in Gaza. She had since been reunited with household in northern Iraq, he added.

Greater than 6,000 Yazidis had been captured by Islamic State militants from native Sinjar area in Iraq in 2014, with many offered into sexual slavery or educated as little one troopers and brought throughout borders, together with to Turkey and Syria.

Through the years, greater than 3,500 have been rescued or freed, based on Iraqi authorities, with some 2,600 nonetheless lacking.

Many are feared useless however Yazidi activists say they consider tons of are nonetheless alive.