Story highlights
- Girl was "misled" into traveling first to Syria and later to Mosul, Iraq, Kurds say
- Family and Swedish authorities asked regional Kurdish officials for help, statement says
(CNN)Kurdish forces have rescued a 16-year-old Swedish girl from ISIS in northern Iraq, according to regional Kurdish authorities.
Kurdish special forces came to the aid of the girl, named Marlin Stivani Nivarlain, near the ISIS-held city of Mosul on Wednesday, said a statement by the Kurdistan Region Security Council.
The statement did not say how long ISIS had held the girl.
The teen is from Boras, about 405 kilometers (250 miles) southwest of Stockholm, the Swedish capital.
According to the statement from Kurdish authorities, Nivarlain "was misled by an ISIL member in Sweden to travel to Syria and later to Mosul." ISIL is another acronym for ISIS.
Members of her family, along with Swedish authorities, asked for Kurdish help in rescuing her, the statement said.
"She is currently in the Kurdistan Region and is provided the care afforded to her under international law," the statement said. "She will be transferred to Swedish authorities to return home once necessary arrangements are put (in) place."
The Kurds are a Middle Eastern ethnic group that inhabits primarily an area that encompasses parts of Iran, Turkey, Iraq and Syria. Some members of the group have long sought to establish a Kurdish state in the region -- a step opposed by those countries that would lose territory to such a state.
