German teen who left to join ISIS captured in Mosul
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
A 16-year-old girl who left Germany to join the Islamic State has been captured in Mosul, Iraq, and told authorities there she is sorry for joining the terrorist organization and wants to be with her family again, the German magazine Der Spiegel reports.
The teen, Linda Wenzel, is in a Baghdad prison, and she's receiving consular support, said Lorenz Haase, the senior public prosecutor in Dresden. She is from the small town of Pulsnitz, near Dresden, and went missing last summer. Several German media outlets say they have interviewed Wenzel, and she told them she wants to "get away from here. I want to get away from the war, from the many weapons, from the noise."
Wenzel also told the media she was shot in the left thigh and her right knee was injured during a helicopter attack, and she is prepared to cooperate with police.
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.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
