German federal prosecutors say they've arrested a 46-year-old German woman on terrorism charges as she attempted to return to the country after marrying an Islamic State (ISIS) fighter and living in Iraqi homes seized by the extremist group.
On Wednesday, Mine K., whose last name wasn't provided in line with German privacy laws, was arrested at the Cologne airport on charges of being a member of a foreign terrorist organisation, prosecutors said.
She's accused of marrying an ISIS fighter during a January 2015 video-call ceremony, while still in Germany, before joining him in Turkey the next month.
After spending time in Syria, they ended up in Tal Afar in Iraq, and lived in a house seized by the group.
Prosecutors say the woman decided to return home, via Turkey, after her husband was killed in mid-2015.
ISIS fighters swept into Iraq in the summer of 2014, taking control of nearly a third of the country. At the height of the group's power its self-proclaimed caliphate stretched from the edges of Aleppo in Syria to just north of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.
With its physical caliphate largely destroyed, ISIS is transforming from a "proto-state" to a covert "terrorist" network, "a process that is most advanced in Iraq" because it still controls pockets in Syria, according to a UN report.
A UN report said ISIS may still have up to 30,000 members equally distributed between Syria and Iraq.
This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
