A teenage Swedish girl being held by Islamic State militants was rescued in a raid by Kurdish special forces last week, the autonomous region's security council said in a statement.

The 16-year-old travelled from Sweden to Syria last year and then crossed the border into Iraq, where she was rescued near the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul on Feb. 17 by forces from the Kurdish counter-terrorism department, the statement added.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.