German Linda Wenzel tells more on her entry into Islamic State world

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) A German schoolgirl and the widow of an Islamic State militant facing death sentence in Iraq has given more details to the Iraqi judiciary about her entanglement into the world of jihadism.

Linda Wenzel, 16, who was arrested by Iraqi forces in July while combing western Mosul after the recapture of the city, said the beginning of her turn to Islamist jihadism was through Fatema, a Jordanian girl who convinced her to convert to Islam in 2016.

She told the newspaper of Iraq’s Higher Judicial Council that Fatema engaged her in jihadist social networks, through which she fall in love with Mohamed, aka Abu Usama al-Shishani, an Islamic State member. Telling him of her disputes with her parents, he promised to marry her if she moves to Turkey. He gave her instructions on how to rig travel documents.

Arriving in Turkey, Wenzel found that Abu Usama had left to Syria, but said the marriage promise was not withdrawn.

“We got married through the phone,” Wenzel told the newspaper. She later united with her husband and moved through the Turkish borders into Syria along with a group of Chechen nationals, and later to Mosul.

Wenzel said her husband was killed in action three months after her arrival into Mosul. She asked then to return to Germany, but her request was turned down, and said she was instead given a U.S.200 allowance disbursed to fighters widows. She told her interviewers that Abu Usama had never shared with her details of his activity within IS, and spent most of his time outside. As for herself, she merely lived as a “housemaid”, as she put it, denying any involvement in combat.

“As Iraqi forces approached, the group gathered us into one of the city(Mosul) hospitals. As battles intensified in the western region, there was no one from the group to protect us, so, we had to walk out only to find Iraqi forces that, despite the ferocity of battles, managed to carry us away from the crossfire.”