A German girl, who ran away from home shortly after converting to Islam, has been found in Iraq, prosecutors said on Saturday.
The 16-year-old teenager, only identified as Linda W. in line with German privacy laws, is getting consular assistance from the German Embassy in Iraq, said prosecutor Lorenz Haase from the eastern German city of Dresden.
“Our information ends with the girl’s arrival in Istanbul about a year ago,” he The Associated Press, adding that further details about her whereabouts in the last year were part of an investigation.
Several female foreign IS fighters were detained by Iraq’s military in Mosul recently, but Haase couldn’t confirm that the German girl was part of that group.
Earlier this week, Iraqi officials said they had arrested a foreign woman they believe is German in Mosul’s Old City. They said she had been recruited by an Arab IS member through social media. But they didn’t identify the woman as Linda W.
Photos of a disheveled young woman in the presence of Iraqi soldiers went viral online last week, but there were contradicting reports about the girl’s identity some said it was Linda W., while others identified her as either a Chechen IS fighter or a Yazidi girl.
In a different case, a French woman captured earlier this month in Mosul with her four children is facing possible prosecution in Iraq for allegedly collaborating with IS, in a test case for how governments handle the families of foreign fighters now that the extremists are in retreat.
The woman, believed to be in her 30s, was arrested July 9 along with her two sons and two daughters in a basement in Mosul’s Old City, according to the Iraqi intelligence officials.
Two Iraqi intelligence officials told the AP on Wednesday that the woman is being investigated in Baghdad and could face terrorism charges for illegally entering Iraq and joining IS, and that the French government wants the children handed over to France.
