Dutch woman who fled Syria left injured husband behind: report

Laura Hansen on Kurdish tv
Laura Hansen on Kurdish tv

The Dutch woman who claimed to have escaped from Syria with her two children last week left her injured husband behind, Trouw reports on Tuesday.

Laura Hansen appeared on Kurdish television saying she had been tricked into going to Syria and that she had escaped with the help of Peshmerga forces.

Dutch journalist Judit Neurink has interviewed Peshmerga leader Bahram Arif Yassin about the escape for Trouw. He says Hansen was with her husband in a car when they approached the front line.

‘We thought it was a suicide terrorist but then they got out of the car with a white flag and we knew they were refugees,’ he told Neurink. IS fighters then opened fire, hitting Hansen’s husband in the leg. The oldest child was also hit in the head by Peshmerga mortar bomb fragments, he said.

Bad man

When asked if the man should be taken to safety, Hansen is quoted as saying that he was a member of IS and a ‘bad man’ who should be left behind.

The general went on to say that the man did not try to enter Kurdistan but fled behind IS lines.

The article points out that Hansen would not have been able to make the journey without a male companion. She is still in Kurdistan and has not yet been handed over to the Dutch consulate.

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