World

Teenage German Girl Lured By ISIS Arrested In Mosul

Ahmad al-Rubaye/AFP/Getty Images.

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Saagar Enjeti White House Correspondent
Font Size:

The Iraqi Security Forces have arrested 16-year-old German citizen Linda Wenzel in the city of Mosul ending a nearly year after she was lured by ISIS recruiters online.

Wenzel was found barricaded in a tunnel with other foreign ISIS female members with guns and explosives after the city fell to the Iraqi Security Forces. German authorities lost track of her in July 2016 after flight records indicated she arrived in Istanbul while she told her parents she was having a sleepover at a friend’s house.

ISIS recruiter radicalized Wenzel who sent her a Koran and an Islamic headscarf. She was reportedly distraught by her mother’s new relationship with a staff member at her school. “It seemed to offer her answers in a confused life,” her schoolfriend said of her relationship to The Sun.

“There is the possibility that Linda might be put on trial in Iraq. She might be expelled for being a foreigner or, because she is a minor reported missing in Germany, she could be handed over to Germany,” German prosecutor Lorenz Haase said after her arrest became public.

Wenzel is one of 26 foreigners arrested by the Iraqi Security Force’s so far. Many foreign fighters did not attempt to flee the city because they would be discovered easily by security forces, and instead opted to carry out last ditch suicide missions.

An Iraqi Security Force soldier insisted the girl was a fighter saying “We found her with a gun in her hand next to her Chechen husband, who was then killed by Iraqi forces in a firefight. She said she had killed a number of our men in the battle.”

Follow Saagar Enjeti on Twitter

Send tips to saagar@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.