Special Forces rescue teen from Islamic State

24 February 2016 - 02:38 By ©The Daily Telegraph

Kurdish troops fighting Islamic State forces in northern Iraq say they have rescued a Swedish teenage girl "lured" there by an Isis fighter.The 16-year-old, identified as Marlin Stivani Nivarlain, was rescued from Isis's stronghold in the Iraqi city of Mosul on February 17, according to the Kurdistan Regional Security Council.The council said the operation was carried out by Kurdish special forces, which operate out of the Kurdish-controlled semi-independent territory of northern Iraq, which borders the area seized by Isis two years ago."She was misled by an Isis member in Sweden to travel to Syria and later to Mosul," the council said.Precise details of how Nivarlain came to be in Isis territory are still unknown. But media reports in Sweden suggest Nivarlain, who was in foster care, travelled to Iraq last June without her parents' knowledge, and was with a 19-year-old boyfriend who wished to volunteer for a jihadist group.She is understood to have been pregnant when she left.While Nivarlain is believed to be of Scandinavian origin, her boyfriend is understood to be of Arab extraction. He is said to have wanted to volunteer for an al-Qaeda affiliated group rather than Isis.The couple are said to have told the girl's parents she was simply off to spend a few days in Stockholm.Joel Wendle, a Swedish radio reporter who has followed Nivarlain's story, told the Daily Telegraph: "I suppose the reason that she went there was because her boyfriend intended to fight. She followed and then she told her parents by phone that she wanted to come home." ..

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