SLATINA, Kosovo (AP) – An 8-year-old boy from Kosovo was reunited with his mother late on Wednesday after intelligence and security forces brought him back from Syria where he was taken by his jihadi father and kept for 5 months, officials said.
Kosovo’s Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said in a statement that Kosovo’s Intelligence Agency “successfully located, found and returned” Erion Zena to Kosovo. He said the operation was “complicated and dangerous,” but didn’t give any further details. It was authorized by Thaci and the country’s President Atifete Jahjaga.
An Associated Press reporter witnessed when the boy was ushered into a waiting room at Pristina’s international airport by two men in civilian clothes where his mother Pranvera Zena waited.
“It feels like a dream,” Pranvera Zena told the AP minutes after the reunion. “It feels as if I am waking up and I fear he’s still not there.”
The boy appeared confused as his mother approached him and hugged him. He then sat on her lap and showed her his toy soldiers and a toy tank, as she caressed him and tried to hold back her tears.