German teen who left to join ISIS captured in Mosul

Iraqi troops celebrate recapturing Mosul.
(Image credit: Fadel Senna/AFP/Getty Images)

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."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

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.