A Yazidi woman kidnapped by Islamic State aged 11 and taken into Gaza has been rescued after a decade, thanks to a secret operation lasting months and involving Israel, the US, and Iraq.
The woman, identified as Fawzia Sido, 21, was taken from her home in Iraq in 2014 before being sold and trafficked to Gaza, a US State Department spokesperson said.
She has been reunited with her family in northern Iraq and was said by Iraqi officials to be resting.
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Ms Sido was liberated after several previous attempts that, according to the chief of staff of Iraq’s foreign minister, had failed due to the difficult security situation caused by Israel’s military offensive in Gaza.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military said in a statement it had worked with the US embassy in Jerusalem and “other international actors” in the “complex” rescue plan.
Iraqi officials had been in contact with the woman for months and passed on her information to US officials.
They arranged for her to escape Gaza with Israeli help, as Iraq and Israel have no diplomatic ties.
The operation began when she fled to a hideout inside the Gaza Strip after her captor – a Palestinian member of Hamas – was killed during the ongoing conflict in Gaza, most likely by an Israeli airstrike.
From Gaza, she crossed into Israel via the Kerem Shalom crossing, and then on to Jordan through the Allenby Bridge Crossing, and from there returned to her family in Iraq, the military said.
A US State Department spokesperson said officials “helped to safely evacuate from Gaza a young Yazidi woman to be reunited with her family in Iraq” on Tuesday.
The spokesperson confirmed her captor was recently killed, allowing her to escape and try to get home.
Silwan Sinjaree, chief of staff of Iraq’s foreign minister, said she was in good physical condition but was traumatised by her time in captivity and by the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.
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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.
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In 2014, Islamic State militants seized large parts of Iraq and Syria, killing 1,200 Yazidis – a Kurdish-speaking people mainly based in northwest Iraq but also small pockets in Syria and Turkey – and enslaving thousands of women and girls.
Many were sold into sexual slavery or trained as child soldiers and taken across neighbouring borders.
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Over the years, more than 3,500 have been rescued or freed, according to Iraqi authorities, with some 2,600 still missing.
Many are feared dead, but Yazidi activists say they believe hundreds are still alive.
