Saturday, October 11, 2014

Captured by ISIS and sold into slavery: 15-year-old Yazidi girl tells of her horrific ordeal at hands of jihadists after escaping to Turkey

Captured by ISIS and sold into slavery: 15-year-old Yazidi girl tells of her horrific ordeal at hands of jihadists after escaping to Turkey

·        Girl, who has been kept anonymous, rocked back and forth as she told story
·        She lived on Iraq's Mount Sinjar with religious sect when Isis militants came
·        They took her to Iraqi city Mosul before marrying her off in Raqqa, Syria
·        She shot her new husband and fled but was recaptured and sold for £600
·        She fed drugs to her new captors then found a man to drive her to Turkey
·        Other witnesses saw regular rapes and girls in captivity as young as five


A 15-year-old girl has revealed how she escaped Isis militants by drugging and shooting two husbands who bought her as a slave.
The teenager, who has been kept anonymous to protect her family, was one of hundreds of women from the Yazidi sect who extremists kidnapped after overrunning their homes on Iraq's Mount Sinjar.
The women and girls were trafficked to Isis strongholds, where survivors say many were raped. The captives were said to include girls as young as five.
Slavery: A 15-year-old girl (pictured) has told how she escaped Isis militants by drugging and shooting two husbands who bought her as a slave. She was one of hundreds of Yazidi women and girls who were abducted
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Slavery: A 15-year-old girl (pictured) has told how she escaped Isis militants by drugging and shooting two husbands who bought her as a slave. She was one of hundreds of Yazidi women and girls who were abducted
Escape: As other Yazidis fled the militants in northern Iraq (pictured) in August, hundreds of women and girls were captured. Survivors said many were raped, while others said the captives included girls as young as five
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Escape: As other Yazidis fled the militants in northern Iraq (pictured) in August, hundreds of women and girls were captured. Survivors said many were raped, while others said the captives included girls as young as five
Now one survivor has spoken to the Associated Press news agency from Sinjar, where she has returned to live with what is left of her family in a makeshift roadside shelter.
Rocking back and forth as she spoke after asking her relatives to leave the room, she told a staggering tale of courage against the kidnappers - who are still holding her two sisters.
Her father, other brothers and other male relatives have vanished, their fates unknown.


First, she said, she and other girls were taken to the nearby town of Tal Afar, where she was kept in the Badosh Prison until U.S. air strikes began.
The militants then moved her and many other girls to the city of Mosul, the biggest Isis stronghold in Iraq, before moving them again to a house in the militants' Syrian garrison of Raqqa. 
'They took girls to Syria to sell them,' she said, her body hunched over as she spoke.
'I was sold in Syria. I stayed about five days with my two sisters, then one of my sisters was sold and taken (back) to Mosul, and I remained in Syria.'
Displaced: Many Yazidi women from Sinjar, including the 15-year-old who was kidnapped, are still living in fear near the northern Iraqi town of Dahuk, pictured. (The Yazidi girl in this photo does not feature in this article)
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Displaced: Many Yazidi women from Sinjar, including the 15-year-old who was kidnapped, are still living in fear near the northern Iraqi town of Dahuk, pictured. (The Yazidi girl in this photo does not feature in this article)
Grim: Yazidis who fled from Sinjar eat breakfast at a school-turned-shelter in Dahuk, 260 miles from Baghdad
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Grim: Yazidis who fled from Sinjar eat breakfast at a school-turned-shelter in Dahuk, 260 miles from Baghdad
Vulnerable: The Yazidi people who remain include many women and children. Hundreds were abducted by Isis
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Vulnerable: The Yazidi people who remain include many women and children. Hundreds were abducted by Isis
In Raqqa, she said, she was married off to a Palestinian man - who she shot after obtaining a gun from the man's aggrieved housekeeper.
She fled, but had nowhere to run. So she went to the only place she knew - the house where she was first held with the other girls in Raqqa.
The militants did not recognise her but sold her off again for $1,000 (£620) to a Saudi fighter, she said.
He told me, 'I'm going to change your name to Abeer, so your mother doesn't recognize you. You'll become Muslim, then I will marry you.' But I refused to become a Muslim and that's why I fled
She said: 'He told me, "I'm going to change your name to Abeer, so your mother doesn't recognize you.
'"You'll become Muslim, then I will marry you." But I refused to become a Muslim and that's why I fled.'
She said she escaped by pouring a powdered drug into tea which she served to the Saudi man and his accomplices, which made them fall asleep - allowing her to flee the house.
This time she was more fortunate, and found a man who would drive her to Turkey to meet her brother.
Once she arrived, her brother borrowed $2,000 (£1,250) from friends to pay a smuggler to get them both back to northern Iraq.
They ended up in a tiny roadside hamlet just outside the Kurdish city of Dahuk, where several other Yazidi families are staying. 
The girl was among hundreds of Yazidi women and girls who Iraq's Human Rights Ministry said were captured when Mount Sinjar was overrun in August.
The plight of the ancient religious sect, whose members are considered devil-worshippers by the militants, sparked international outcry - and was a turning point in the West's assault on Isis.
Outcry: Images of Yazidi people fleeing Mount Sinjar in August (pictured) proved a turning point in the conflict
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Outcry: Images of Yazidi people fleeing Mount Sinjar in August (pictured) proved a turning point in the conflict
Exodus: The U.S. and Britain made aid drops to thousands of the Yazidi people who had been trapped
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Exodus: The U.S. and Britain made aid drops to thousands of the Yazidi people who had been trapped
It prompted a string of humanitarian aid drops by Britain and the U.S. which gave way to air strikes just a few weeks later.  
Other Yazidi kidnapping victims who spoke to the Associated Press said the militants deprived them of enough food, water or even a place to sit.
They all reported seeing dozens of other Yazidi women and children as young as five in captivity, and they all said that they have relatives who are still missing.
Amsha Ali, a 19-year-old, agreed to waive her right to anonymity to speak of her terrifying ordeal.
She was six months pregnant when she was dragged off in Sinjar, where the last she saw of her husband was him lying on the ground about to be shot.
She and other women were taken to a house full of Islamic State fighters in Mosul, and each of them were married off.
'Each of them took one of us for themselves,' she said.
New battle: The latest fighting has been in the Syrian border town of Kobane, a stone's throw from Turkey
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New battle: The latest fighting has been in the Syrian border town of Kobane, a stone's throw from Turkey
Squalid: The rampage of Isis through Iraq and Syria has produced hundreds of thousands of refugees. Pictured are Kurdish refugees today in a camp in the town of Suruc, Turkey, as fighting hit the border town of Kobane
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Squalid: The rampage of Isis through Iraq and Syria has produced hundreds of thousands of refugees. Pictured are Kurdish refugees today in a camp in the town of Suruc, Turkey, as fighting hit the border town of Kobane
Vulnerable: Kurdish refugees from Syria today in a 'tent city' on the outskirts of the Turkish town of Suruc
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Vulnerable: Kurdish refugees from Syria today in a 'tent city' on the outskirts of the Turkish town of Suruc
She too was given to a fighter, but unlike other women she saw she was never raped by the man, possibly because she was pregnant.
After a few weeks she escaped by slipping out of a bathroom window at night and fleeing to nearby Kurdish territory with the help of a good Samaritan who saw her in the streets of Mosul.
She said she tried to convince other women to flee with her, but they were too afraid.
'Because they were so terrified, they are left there and now I know nothing about them,' she said.
She is now with her father and a surviving sister in an unfinished building in the town of Sharia, where some 5,000 Yazidi refugees live.
'The killing was not the hardest thing for me,' she said. 'Even though they forced my husband, brother-in-law and father-in-law on the ground to be murdered.
The latest Syrian Kurdish refugees in Turkey (pictured) are among hundreds of thousands who have fled Isis
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The latest Syrian Kurdish refugees in Turkey (pictured) are among hundreds of thousands who have fled Isis
Uncertain future: Syrian Kurds taking shelter in Turkey. Isis has rampaged through huge regions of Iraq and Syria murdering thousands of people in the name of an extremist Sunni Islamic 'caliphate'
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Uncertain future: Syrian Kurds taking shelter in Turkey. Isis has rampaged through huge regions of Iraq and Syria murdering thousands of people in the name of an extremist Sunni Islamic 'caliphate'
'It was painful - but marrying (the militant) was the worst. It was hardest thing for me.'
This week Iraq's only Yazidi MP was given an award for campaigning for her people, including the 30,000 who were trapped on the mountainside in August.
Vian Dakhil broke her leg in a helicopter crash while personally delivering aid to Yazidis on Mount Sinjar.
'We are peaceful people, but our men are being butchered, and our women and girls are being tortured, raped and taken as slaves, she said.
'I must make the world aware that there are still people who want to rule with the laws of the Dark Ages, by forcing us to change religion or be killed.' 
The terror group, which now calls itself Islamic State, has swept through huge regions of Iraq and Syria murdering thousands of people in the name of an extremist Sunni Islamic 'caliphate'.

A fierce battle has been fought in the Syrian border town of Kobane, just a few hundred yards from Turkey, where it is feared the militants will soon seize overall control.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Are these people any different from Americans? Aware of any resemblances? Where is the real American army now? (Not Washington DC's military industrial corporate forces that lost control of its ISIS plan)