A Kurdish Yezidi girl, who was abducted by the Islamic State (IS) during the 2014 occupation of Sinjar, has been rescued in Gaza after more than a decade in captivity, according to official reports.
Fawzia Amin Saydo, born in 2003, was kidnapped when IS forces overran Sinjar, leaving her fate unknown for years. Recently, a joint Israeli-US operation successfully led to her rescue from Gaza.
Sources indicated that Fawzia had been held by an IS militant from the Gaza Strip, who was killed during the rescue operation. The militant’s mother had taken Fawzia to Gaza, where she had lived for the past four years.
Following her rescue, Fawzia was returned to Iraq via Jordan and reunited with her family in Sinjar on Wednesday.
During the 2014 Sinjar attack, ISIS killed thousands of Yezidis and kidnapped 6,417 people. To date, more than 3,500 Yezidi captives have been rescued, as recent reports confirm.