Iraqi Kurdish troops rescue Swedish teen from Islamic State

A SWEDISH teenager rescued from Islamic State militants in Iraq has described life in the so-called caliphate as “really hard” and said that she was duped into going there by her boyfriend. At first all was fine, she says, but then he started speaking more and more about “ISIS videos”.

“Then he said he wanted to go to ISIS and I said: ‘OK, no problem, ‘ because I didn’t know what ISIS means or what Islam is or nothing”.

Iraq’s second-largest city of Mosul was the first major city to fall into the hands of Islamic State militants during their blitz in June 2014, when the group swept across vast areas in the country’s north and west.

At this point in the video, Marlin appears to suggest she is reading from a statement, as she says she can not “see” what to say next, and the video cuts.

In the interview with Kurdistan 24, the girl said she had met her boyfriend in 2014 after dropping out of school in south-eastern Sweden.

“I did not have any money either – it was a really hard life”.

She was rescued by Kurdish special forces near the city of Mosul a week ago, Kurdish authorities say.

Nivarlain said life there was completely different from life in Sweden, where, compared to Mosul, she said there is everything.

“I said to her that I want to go home”, Nivarlain said. The teenager, who was rescued on February 17, is now in Iraq’s Kurdistan region and will be handed over to Swedish authorities.

She subsequently ran away from her foster home in Boras, east of Gothenburg, and travelled across Europe by train, bus and vehicle, before crossing the border into Syria from Turkey.

According to reports, Nivarlain will be transferred to Swedish authorities and will return home once necessary arrangements are put in place. Another Swedish teen who was taken into custody in Vienna faced charges for her involvement with the group.

But a local TV station, K24, described the rescue as a “unique military operation” and late Tuesday night broadcast an exclusive interview with the teen in which she describes what had happened to her in the last two years.

After a while, she got a mobile phone and contacted her mother, saying she wanted to go back to Sweden.

They were met by ISIS in Syria and taken by bus along with other men and women to Mosul, in ISIS territory in northern Iraq, where they were given a house.

For years now, European nations have struggled with ISIS symphathizers traveling to Syria or Iraq to join the terrorist group.