After a decade of captivity, Fawzia Amin Sido, a 21-year-old Yezidi woman from the Karazir subdistrict in Nineveh province, has been freed from the Gaza Strip, where she had been held for the past four years.

According to Sarab Elias, Director General of Yezidi Survivors at Iraq's Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, Fawzia was initially abducted by ISIS during their 2014 attack on Sinjar. She had been with an ISIS fighter from Gaza, and after his death, his mother took her to the Gaza Strip.

A key piece of intelligence enabled Iraqi authorities to pinpoint Fawzia's location in Gaza. She was brought back through Jordan and reunited with her family on Wednesday, October 2, after a coordinated operation between the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Intelligence Service, and the U.S. embassies in Baghdad and Amman, with the assistance of Jordanian authorities.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that her release followed over four months of intensive efforts. The National Intelligence Service added that the operation was conducted after receiving crucial intelligence about Fawzia’s whereabouts.

Khairi Bozani, the official overseeing the Yezidi abductees' file, praised the successful operation, stating, "We commend anyone who contributes to or facilitates the rescue of Yezidi women and girls."

Since ISIS's attack on Sinjar in 2014, 6,417 Yezidis have been abducted, and so far, 3,581 of them have been rescued, according to Bozani.