Yazidi Iraqi Children Recount their Escape from Islamic State

Two Yazidi Iraqi children, ages 12 and 14, recount the horrors that they suffered from Islamic State during their time in captivity.

In an interview that was recently broadcast on Russia TV that was translated into English by MEMRI, two Yazidi Iraqi children, age 12 and 14, recount how they were captured by Islamic State terrorists, were held in captivity and managed to escape to freedom. Their story is that of countless other members of the Yazidi community in Iraq, whom Islamic State has declared does not have the right to exist. Islamic State has systematically murdered Yazidi men, while capturing Yazidi women and children, raping and abusing them in addition to compelling many of them to convert to Islam.

According to a reporter from Russia TV, Dleir and Dlawar went to celebrate a Yazidi holiday with their grandmother, uncle, aunt, and cousins: “The joy on their faces quickly evaporated when they were taken captive. Islamic State gunmen stormed the place and captured everybody.”

14-year-old Dleir stated that “they opened the door and told us to get out. We went out with my uncle, aunt, cousins, and grandmother. The IS gunmen were in the streets of the village (Tal Qassab). They stole our car and took us to Mosul that night. There were many of them and they had about 20 cars. For about a month, we were held in a large building near Mosul Forest.”

The Russia TV reporter noted that Dleir and Dalwar were held captive for 15 days during which time the women and girls were separated from the men the men and boys. Dleir told Russia TV: “After we had been separated from the men and the women, they killed the men. Then, we were transferred to a school in Tal Afar, where they spoke the Turkmen language. Ten days later, we were transferred to another place.” The report does not state what happened to the Yazidi women and girls. It can be assumed that they possibly could have been raped, sold as sex slaves, or forcefully married to jihadists during the period where they were separated.

At this point, 14-year-old Dleir and 12-year-old Dlawar began to think of escaping after they were beaten up by Islamic State terrorists. Dleir reported: “In the evening, we fled from the village of Kisr Al-Mihrab to Ein Hissan village, where we hid in a deep trench. There were more than twenty of us, all women and children. We ran out of fresh water and the situation was bad. Some could not go on and preferred to turn themselves in. We moved on and got into one of the houses, but then, we were handed back to IS.”

However, the two Iraqi Yazidi boys did not give up their dream of escaping from Islamic State despite being beaten harshly: “We escaped again with a group of fifty women and children. The others were too scared. We reached the Sino area, near Mt. Sinjar. We walked a long way and then were picked up by fighters from the Peshmerga and the YPG.”