BERLIN: A German girl, who ran away from home shortly after converting to Islam, has been found in Iraq, prosecutors said 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.
Haase wouldn't confirm media reports that the teenager from Pulsnitz in eastern Germany had been fighting for Daesh in Mosul.
"Our information ends with the girl's arrival in Istanbul about a year ago," he told The Associated Press, adding that further details about her whereabouts in the last year were part of an investigation.
Several female foreign Daesh fighters were detained by Iraq's military in Mosul recently, but Haase could not 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 Daesh member through social media. But they did not 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 Daesh fighter or a Yazidi girl.
Hundreds of Germans, among them several girls and young women, have in recent years left the country to join Daesh in Syria and Iraq. While some have been killed in battle and suicide bombings, and others have returned back to Germany, there is also a large number that have been unaccounted for, security officials here say. Many of them were radicalized via social media. Local newspapers reported last year that Linda W., who is from the small town of Pulsnitz near Dresden, was also in touch with Daesh members online before she ran away from home last summer. She started to cover her hair and wear long gowns before she disappeared from her family's home. Her mother later found a copy of the girl's plane ticket to Turkey under a bed, media reported.
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 Daesh, 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 said on Wednesday that the woman is being investigated in Baghdad and could face terrorism charges for illegally entering Iraq and joining Daesh, and that the French government wants the children handed over to France.
German runaway girl who converted to Islam found in Iraq
German runaway girl who converted to Islam found in Iraq
Israeli FM urges Jews to move to Israel a week after Sydney attack
- “Today I call on Jews in England, Jews in France, Jews in Australia, Jews in Canada, Jews in Belgium: come to the Land of Israel! Come home!” Saar said
JERUSALEM: Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar called on Sunday for Jews in Western countries to move to Israel to escape rising antisemitism, one week after 15 were shot dead at a Jewish event in Sydney.
“Jews have the right to live in safety everywhere. But we see and fully understand what is happening, and we have a certain historical experience. Today, Jews are being hunted across the world,” Saar said at a public candle lighting marking the last day of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.
“Today I call on Jews in England, Jews in France, Jews in Australia, Jews in Canada, Jews in Belgium: come to the Land of Israel! Come home!” Saar said at the ceremony, held with leaders of Jewish communities and organizations worldwide.
Since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, Israeli leaders have repeatedly denounced a surge in antisemitism in Western countries and accused their governments of failing to curb it.
Australian authorities have said the December 14 attack on a Hanukkah event on Sydney’s Bondi Beach was inspired by the ideology of the Islamic State jihadist group.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Western governments to better protect their Jewish citizens.
“I demand that Western governments do what is necessary to fight antisemitism and provide the required safety and security for Jewish communities worldwide,” Netanyahu said in a video address.
In October, Saar accused British authorities of failing to take action to curb a “toxic wave of antisemitism” following an attack outside a Manchester synagogue on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, in which two people were killed and four wounded.
According to Israel’s 1950 “Law of Return,” any Jewish person in the world is entitled to settle in Israel (a process known in Hebrew as aliyah, or “ascent“) and acquire Israeli citizenship. The law also applies to individuals who have at least one Jewish grandparent.zz
