German girl, 16, who ran away to join Isis in Iraq says: 'I just want to go home'
A 16-year-old German girl who ran away from home to join Islamic State (Isis) has said she regrets joining the jihadist group and wants to come home.
Linda Wenzel, who disappeared from Pulsnitz near Dresden on July 1 last year, was detained in Iraq, along with other female supporters of the group, after the Battle of Mosul, which saw Isis fighters forced out of the ancient city.
Lorenz Haase, senior public prosecutor in Dresden, confirmed the teenager had been “located and identified in Iraq”.
Wenzel, who is thought to have converted to Islam after being groomed on social media, was arrested by Iraqi forces along with 20 female Isis supporters from Russia, Turkey, Canada, Libya and Syria.
The group are believed to have barricaded themselves with guns and explosives in a tunnel underneath the ruins of Mosul’s old city.
German media interviewed Wenzel, who told them she regretted joining the group and wanted to leave.
“I just want to get away from here,” she said. “I want to get away from the war, from the many weapons, from the noise. I just want to go home to my family.”
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They added that she wanted to be extradited to Germany and would cooperate with authorities.
Despite having a gunshot wound on her left thigh and another injury on her right knee, which she said was caused during a helicopter attack, she said she was “doing well”.
Mr Haase told the Associated Press that is not clear whether the teenager will return to Germany.
“We, as the public prosecutor’s office Dresden, have not applied for an arrest warrant and will therefore not be able to request extradition,” he said.
“There is the possibility that Linda might be put on trial in Iraq. She might be expelled for being a foreigner or, because she is a minor reported missing in Germany, she could be handed over to Germany.”
Earlier in the year, her parents said they “didn’t think anything of” their daughter’s new-found interest in Islam before her disappearance. “[We] even bought her a copy of the Qur’an,” her mother, Katharina, said.
The girl was identified after Iraqi forces declared victory over Isis in the group’s former stronghold of Mosul earlier this month.
Haase said the teenager had travelled to Turkey about a year ago with the aim of reaching Iraq or Syria.
