A Swedish girl just 16 years old was recently rescued from an ISIS stronghold near the city of Mosul, Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) said Tuesday.
Marlin Stivani Nivarlain, from the city of Borås in southern Sweden, reportedly traveled to the Middle East after being "misled by an [ISIS] member in Sweden to travel to Syria and later to Mosul," the KRG said,
according to NBC News.
She was reportedly pregnant at the time, and seeing a 19-year-old boy whom she traveled with to the Middle East.
She was subsequently rescued on Wednesday at the request of her home government, as well as friends and family. She is currently being "provided the care afforded to her under international law" in the Kurdistan region, and officials expect to transfer her back to Sweden soon.
Swedish news site
The Local reported that a senior Kurdish security official said the rescue was carried out without any bloodshed.
Sweden's Security Service, Säpo, said that up to 300 Swedes have traveled to the region dominated by the Islamic State to fight in the past 3 years. Roughly 40 of them are thought to have died in battle. 90 men and 35 women are thought to remain in the region.
In a past case of a 16-year-old Western girl who traveled to the Middle East,
CBS News reported that a British girl had made contact with the news bureau, and asked for help getting out.
She explained that she was being kept in a house full of women, and that none of them were allowed to go outside. She feared that she would be married off at some point.
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