A 16-year-old German girl who left her home town near Dresden to travel to Syria has reportedly been found in Mosul, Iraq.
Wenzel was found last week, hiding in Mosul tunnels built by the terrorists, alongside weapons and suicide vests, Russia Today reports, citing a Die Welt story.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
She has been handed over to US troops in Iraq for questioning, the Daily Telegraph says. It adds she was found with a group of 20 female fighters, including Russian, Turkish, Canadian and Chechen women.
Wenzel grew up in a Protestant family and reportedly had not shown any interest in religion until shortly before her disappearance. Friends say she converted to Islam in early 2016, began learning Arabic and started taking the Koran to school.
Police believe she was radicalised online by a Muslim man who persuaded her to travel to Syria last summer. She is said to have used fake documents to travel to Istanbul, Turkey, where police lost track of her.
Vian Dakhil, of the Council of Representatives of Iraq, confirmed Wenzel's identity on Twitter and said she had been a sniper for IS. He also claimed her mother "didn’t deny" the girl in the photo was Wenzel.
Mosul has been gripped by intense fighting in recent months as Iraqi forces sought to retake control of the city after it fell to IS in 2014. Iraq's government declared victory in the city earlier this month.
Although accurate statistics are difficult to obtain, an estimated 930 people, 20 per cent of them female, have left Germany to fight in Syria or Iraq, according to Hans-Georg Maassen, president of Germany's domestic security agency.
A German security report says young people can easily be indoctrinated to “develop a readiness to consequently obey the order to kill unbelievers”.
The Guardian reports "up to 30,000 foreign fighters are thought to have crossed into Syria" to fight alongside IS, with the US government estimating as many as 25,000 of them have since been killed.
About 850 Britons are thought to have joined the group in Syria. Anyone returning to the UK who is thought to have fought for IS in Syria may face life in prison under the Terrorism Act.
-
5 cinematic cartoons about Bezos betting big on 'Melania'Cartoons Artists take on a girlboss, a fetching newspaper, and more
-
The fall of the generals: China’s military purgeIn the Spotlight Xi Jinping’s extraordinary removal of senior general proves that no-one is safe from anti-corruption drive that has investigated millions
-
Why the Gorton and Denton by-election is a ‘Frankenstein’s monster’Talking Point Reform and the Greens have the Labour seat in their sights, but the constituency’s complex demographics make messaging tricky
-
Epstein files topple law CEO, roil UK governmentSpeed Read Peter Mandelson, Britain’s former ambassador to the US, is caught up in the scandal
-
Iran and US prepare to meet after skirmishesSpeed Read The incident comes amid heightened tensions in the Middle East
-
Israel retrieves final hostage’s body from GazaSpeed Read The 24-year-old police officer was killed during the initial Hamas attack
-
China’s Xi targets top general in growing purgeSpeed Read Zhang Youxia is being investigated over ‘grave violations’ of the law
-
Panama and Canada are negotiating over a crucial copper mineIn the Spotlight Panama is set to make a final decision on the mine this summer
-
Why Greenland’s natural resources are nearly impossible to mineThe Explainer The country’s natural landscape makes the task extremely difficult
-
Iran cuts internet as protests escalateSpeed Reada Government buildings across the country have been set on fire
-
US nabs ‘shadow’ tanker claimed by RussiaSpeed Read The ship was one of two vessels seized by the US military
