Canadian woman says 'safe' after reports of IS capture

Dec 2, 2014

An image grab made on November 17, 2014 by al-Furqan Media allegedly shows members of the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group. (AFP photo)

OTTAWA: A Canadian woman said to have been captured by jihadists in Syria was apparently safe, according to a post on the woman's Facebook page on Monday. 

"Guys, I'm totally safe and secure," said the update on Gill Rosenberg's account. 

However, the post's authenticity could not be verified. The Canadian-Israeli dual national who had served in the Israel Defense Forces had volunteered to fight with the Kurds. 

Islamic State jihadists claimed a woman described as a "female Zionist soldier" had been captured in the embattled Syrian border town of Kobane, and some jihadists said the woman might be Rosenberg, according to US-based monitoring group SITE. 

In the post, Rosenberg said she doesn't have access to the Internet or any communications devices on the battlefield and so cannot reply regularly to emails or social media posts. 

She urged supporters to ignore the "bullshit" reports of her kidnapping. 

IS jihadists began advancing on Kobane in September, hoping to quickly seize the small town and secure its grip on a large stretch of the Syrian-Turkish border, following advances it made in Iraq. 

At one point, it looked set to overrun the town, but Kurdish Syrian fighters, backed by coalition air strikes and an influx of Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga forces, have held back the group.