A 21-year-old woman kidnapped by self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq a decade ago has been freed from Gaza this week in a secret operation months in the making that involved Israel, the United States and Iraq, officials say.
The woman is a member of mostly found in Iraq and Syria of which more than 5,000 members were killed and thousands more kidnapped in an IS campaign in 2014 that the United Nations has said constituted genocide.
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 military offensive in Gaza, Silwan Sinjaree, chief of staff of Iraq's foreign minister, told Reuters.
She has been identified as Fawzia Sido.
Reuters could not reach the woman directly for comment, with Iraqi officials saying she was resting after having been reunited with her family in northern Iraq.
Iraqi officials had been in contact with the woman for months and passed on her information to US officials, who arranged for her exit from Gaza with the help of Israel, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Iraq and Israel do not have any diplomatic ties.
The Israeli military said it had coordinated with the US embassy in Jerusalem and "other international actors" in the operation to free Sido.
It said in a statement her captor had been killed during the Gaza war, presumably by an Israeli strike, and she then fled to a hideout inside the Gaza Strip.
"In a complex operation co-ordinated between Israel, the United States, and other international actors, she was recently rescued in a secret mission from the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom Crossing," it said.
After entering Israel, she continued on to Jordan through the Allenby Bridge Crossing and from there returned to her family in Iraq, the military said.
LISTEN TO
Ten years after the Sinjar massacre, Yazidi survivors demand justice
SBS News
03/08/202403:23
A State Department spokesperson said on Tuesday the US "helped to safely evacuate from Gaza a young Yezidi woman to be reunited with her family in Iraq".
The spokesperson said she was kidnapped from her home in Iraq aged 11 and sold and trafficked to Gaza.
Her captor was recently killed, allowing her to escape and seek repatriation, the spokesperson said.
Sinjaree said she was in good physical condition but was traumatised by her time in captivity and by the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.
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.
More than 6,000 Yazidis were captured by IS militants from Sinjar region in Iraq in 2014, with many sold into sexual slavery or trained as child soldiers and taken across borders, including to Türkiye and Syria.
Over the years, more than 3,500 have been rescued or freed, according to Iraqi authorities, with about 2,600 still missing.
Many are feared dead, but Yazidi activists say they believe hundreds are still alive.
