A German girl who was believed to have been fighting for Islamic State in Mosul when she was arrested last week is the missing 16-year-old Linda Wenzel, German authorities have confirmed.
Wenzel's parents had been searching for their daughter since she disappeared from her home in the village of Pulsnitz, near Dresden, in July last year. She is thought to have converted to Islam after being groomed on social media.
Wenzel, whom German authorities named only as Linda W, is receiving consular assistance from the German embassy in Iraq. Lorenz Haase, a prosecutor in Dresden, would not confirm reports that the teenager had been fighting for Isis."Our information ends with the girl's arrival in Istanbul about a year ago," he said.
Iraqi officials this week said they had arrested a foreign woman they believed was German, who had been recruited by an Arab Isis member through social media. They did not identify the woman as Wenzel. Arrested by Iraqi forces, she was part of a group of 20 female Isis supporters from Russia, Turkey, Canada, Libya and Syria who had barricaded themselves with guns and explosives in a tunnel underneath the ruins of Mosul's old city.Video released last weekend showed images of a disheveled and dust-covered girl who appeared to match Wenzel's description. However, there were contradicting reports about the her identity as some said it was Wenzel, while others identified her as either a Chechen Isis fighter or a Yazidi girl.
Wenzel had been missing since 1 July last year when she failed to return home after telling her parents she was spending the weekend at a friend's house. Hidden under the mattress in her room, police later found receipts for two plane tickets, from Dresden to Frankfurt and from Frankfurt to Istanbul.