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.
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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
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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.'
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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)
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Grim: Yazidis who fled from
Sinjar eat breakfast at a school-turned-shelter in Dahuk, 260 miles from
Baghdad
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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.
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Outcry: Images of Yazidi people
fleeing Mount Sinjar in August (pictured) proved a turning point in the
conflict
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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.
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New battle: The latest fighting
has been in the Syrian border town of Kobane, a stone's throw from Turkey
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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
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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.
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The latest Syrian Kurdish
refugees in Turkey (pictured) are among hundreds of thousands who have fled
Isis
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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:
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)
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