Amid all the strife in the Middle East, a tale of cooperation and hope: A woman kidnapped as an 11-year-old by ISIS more than a decade ago has been freed. Reuters reports the now 21-year-old, identified as Fawzia Sido, was removed from Gaza by the US in an operation that involved aid from Israel, Jordan, and Iraq. The specifics of her release have not been shared, but a US State Department rep shared some backstory, saying Sido was taken from Iraq in 2014, sold, and then trafficked to Gaza. The Israeli military said in a statement that her captor was killed during the Israel-Hamas war, giving her an opening to flee and hide in the Gaza Strip.
A source tells Reuters that Iraqi officials communicated with Sido for months and provided those details to US officials, who had Israel's assistance in getting her out of Gaza. A rep for Iraq's foreign minister describes a 4-month-long effort that involved some failed attempts due to the current situation in Gaza. The rep added that the woman is in good physical health but traumatized.
The BBC reports Canadian philanthropist Steve Maman posted video to X showing Sido's reunion with her family. He wrote, "I made a promise to Fawzia the yazidi who was hostage of Hamas in Gaza that I would bring her back home to her mother in Sinjar. To her it seemed surreal and impossible but not to me, my only enemy was time. Our team reunited her moments ago with her mother and family in Sinjar." Reuters notes that more than 6,000 Yazidis were captured by ISIS in Iraq's Sinjar region in 2014; Iraq says 2,600 of them remain missing. (More Yazidis stories.)
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