A 21-year-old woman kidnapped by Islamic State militants in Iraq more than a decade ago was freed from Gaza this week in an operation involving the United States and Israel.
Fawzia Sido is a member of the ancient Yazidi religious minority mostly found in Iraq and Syria. More than 5,000 Yazidi members were killed and thousands more kidnapped in an Isis campaign in 2014 that the UN has said constituted genocide.
Silwan Sinjaree, the Iraqi foreign minister’s chief of staff, told Reuters that she was freed after more than four months of efforts that involved several failed attempts due to the security situation resulting from Israel’s military offensive in Gaza. The rescue involved the US, Israel, Jordan and Iraq, according to officials.
A video was said to show Sido meeting her relatives
DAVID SARANGA/X/REUTERS
The Israeli