Linda Wenzel, a 16-year-old who fled Germany to join ISIS has been captured in Mosul, Iraq

A school girl found with a female ISIS suicide squad in Mosul became 'lonely and withdrawn' after her parents' marriage broke down, it was claimed today.

Linda Wenzel, 16, ran away from home in Germany a year ago after her parents separated and her mother Katharina began a new relationship with a caretaker at a local school.

The teenager, described as 'a brilliant student', fled the country using her mother's passport and flew from Berlin to Turkey before making her way to Syria.

Police believe she fell in love with a Muslim man she met online who persuaded her to flee to the terror group's so-called caliphate.

Pictures have emerged showing the moment she was captured in the ruins of war-torn Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city.

She was found in a tunnel with 20 members of the terror group's fearsome all-female police force, some of whom were wearing suicide vests.

At first, troops thought she may have been a kidnapped Yazidi slave due to her lack of Arabic.

Today her neighbours in the village of Pulsnitz, near Dreseden, south-east Germany, told of their shock and anger that the promising youngster left home to join the extremist group.

Linda fled a year ago after flying from Berlin to Turkey before making her way to Syria. Pictured: Linda being captured as Mosul was recaptured from ISIS

By the time her mother noticed she was missing, Linda (pictured before leaving Germany) had already flown to Turkey and vanished

One former neighbour in the town of Gruenestrasse, where she lived with her parents before they split up last year, said: 'What a b***h for putting her parents through this.

'What sort of a person gives themselves over to a group killing her own people in Germany? I hope a jail cell awaits her when she returns, not yellow ribbons.'

School friends have described the quiet teenager as becoming increasingly withdrawn.

Another neighbour Angela Ehrenberg, 65, said: 'She was a very quiet, sensitive child. But there was an aura of loneliness about her that I could not understand.'

In 2015 she was confirmed into the local church. Female priest Maria Gruener said: 'She was a very placid girl who did not want to take part in confirmation instruction.'

But unbeknownst to her, Linda was falsely adopting the faith of the Christian church while secretly giving her heart to Islam.

As she attended the church, her parents' marriage broke down and she moved with her mother to Pulsnitz.

Linda (pictured, after she was captured) was among 20 ISIS followers seized after Mosul fell following a ten month battle which left 25,000 Jihadists dead

Linda (pixilated, before fleeing to Syria) was unhappy at home and turned to Islam and soon began engaging with ISIS followers in the Middle East on Internet chat rooms

There, Katharina moved in with Thomas Weiss. Unhappy and insecure, Linda suddenly found herself with a new stepfather - and an older stepsister called Dana.

In May last year the troubled teenager made contact on the internet with an Islamist preacher in Hamburg who sent her a copy of the Koran.

'It seemed to offer her answers in a confused life,' said Christina, 16, a fellow pupil at the town's Ernst-Rierscher-Comprehensive school.

Linda (pictured before fleeing to Syria) used the counterfeit bank authorisation and her mother's forged identification papers to buy a plane ticket to Istanbul

'Last summer, shortly before we broke up, she began leaving home with a small bag in which she had an Islamic headscarf and long flowing robes which she donned to cover up all her skin. There were some arguments with staff.'

She stole her mother's credit card and secretly bought an airline ticket to Istanbul. Until six months before she fled she had never even travelled by train alone, it has been reported.

But on Friday July 1 last year she told her mother and father she was going to spend the weekend with a friend called Caroline and would be back in Sunday.

She never came home - and was never at her friend's.

Instead she travelled to Frankfurt and caught a plane to Istanbul before being smuggled into Syria.

Eventually, she ended up in Mosul where she changed her name to Umm Mariam, and was taken as a 'jihadist bride'.

Behind her she left baffled friends and parents as well as teachers who said she was in course for impressive A level results.

Speaking from the schoolgirl's hometown last July, her mother said she was devastated.

Iraqi security forces recently ended three years of ISIS rule in the Iraqi city of Mosul (pictured) and the terror group is under growing pressure in Raqqa

Footage reportedly showing ISIS fighters crawling out of their tunnels to surrender to Iraqi counter-terror units after Mosul was reclaimed from jihadists

Around 900,000 people fled the fighting in Mosul, with more than a third sheltered in camps outside Iraq's second largest city

She said: 'When she did not come back and then I found out she had never even been there, I called the police. In her room they found a print of a plane ticket to Istanbul under the mattress.

'I was shocked, my daughter has never stolen or lied about anything before.

'I am devastated by the fact that she was apparently completely brainwashed and persuaded to leave the country by someone and that she managed to hide it from me.'

A search of her room by police unearthed a copy of her airline ticket bought on her mother's credit card and assorted Islamic literature.

She was found in Mosul where pockets of the city remain insecure after ten months of heavy fighting.

Around 900,000 people fled the conflict, with more than a third sheltered in camps and the rest living with family and friends in other neighbourhoods.