German runaway girl who converted to Islam is found in Iraq

BERLIN — A German girl who ran away from home after converting to Islam has been found as Iraqi forces liberated the northern city of Mosul from Islamic State extremists.

German and Iraqi authorities reported Saturday that she was in good health and will be interrogated next week by Iraqi officials.

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, prosecutor Lorenz Haase said from the eastern German city of Dresden.

Three Iraqi intelligence and investigative sources confirmed to The Associated Press that the German teenager, who was apprehended in the basement of a home in Mosul’s Old City earlier this month, was Linda W.

The girl is in good health, the Iraqi officials said, adding that on the day of her arrest she was “too stunned” to speak but now she is doing better. They said she had been working with the ISIL police department.

Linda W. could theoretically face the death sentence, according to Iraqi’s counterterrorism law. However, even if she is sentenced to death in Iraq, she would not be executed before the age of 22.

Photos of a dishevelled young woman in the presence of Iraqi soldiers went viral online last week, but there were contradicting reports about the girl’s identity.

The German teenager had married a Muslim Arab she met online after arriving in the group’s territory, the Iraqi officials added. They said Linda W. was one of 26 foreigners arrested in Mosul since the retreat of the extremists there.

The 26 foreigners found in Mosul included two men, eight children and 16 women. Iraqi officials said the women’s husbands were ISIL fighters but their fates were not clear.

More than 930 people, among them several girls and young women, have left Germany to join ISIL in Syria and Iraq.