Swedish Woman Accused of Treating Yazidi Women, Children 'as Slaves'
NewsweekSEP 20 2024
Yazidi Woman Freed From Gaza After 10-Year Captivity
Yazidi Woman Freed From Gaza After 10-Year Captivity
Above: Iraqi Yazidi women cry as they hold pictures of their victims and missing relatives during a ceremony in Chamishko camp, in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, marking the 10th anniversary of the Yazidi genocide. Image copyright: Ismael Adnan/Contributor/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
The Facts
After being abducted by the Islamic State (IS) ten years ago at the age of 11, a 21-year-old woman of the Yazidi religious minority group was freed from Gaza this week following a secret joint rescue mission conducted by the US, Israeli, and Iraqi governments.
The woman, Fawzia Sido, was kidnapped after IS took control of large parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014, killing 1.2K Kurdish-speaking Yazidis and enslaving thousands of women and girls—some were sold as sex slaves and others as child soldiers.
Sido was allegedly trafficked into Gaza by a Palestinian member of Hamas. She was in contact with Iraqi officials for months and fled to a hiding spot in the Gaza Strip after the man was reportedly killed in an Israeli strike.
The Spin
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