Another Yezidi family rescued from last ISIS-held territory in Syria

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) recently rescued another Yezidi (Ezidi) family from the last bastion of the Islamic State’s crumbling self-proclaimed caliphate now narrowed down to a small area in eastern Syria, a local source told Kurdistan 24 Monday.

In the past week, 21 Ezidi women and children have been rescued from the town of al-Baghouz in Deir al-Zor Province, said Ziyad Sheikh Avdal, the head of safe houses for Ezidis in the Jazira region. Jazira, or Cizire in Kurdish, includes the northeastern provinces of both Hasakah and Qamishli (Qamishlo). 

Avdal added, “Our efforts are ongoing to save all Ezidis still in the hands of Da’esh [ISIS],” noting that a number of the children have forgotten their mother tongue as they have been separated from their families for the past four-and-a-half years.

On Sunday, a group of eleven Ezidi children who were taken by Islamic State militants spoke to Kurdistan 24 and recounted tragic stories of their abduction. A boy in his early teens said, “Da’esh killed my father and took my mother.”

On Feb. 12, the Kurdistan Region’s rescue office for Ezidis brought back a woman and her two children from Syria following their rescue from Baghouz.

The emergence of the Islamic State and its violent assault on Sinjar (Shingal) in 2014 led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Ezidis. Most of them fled to the Kurdistan Region, while others resettled to neighboring countries in the region or Western states.

Others were not as lucky and remained stranded in the war zone, where they experienced atrocities and mass executions at the hands of the extremist group for years. Militants subjected women and girls to sexual slavery, kidnapped children, forced religious conversions, executed scores of men, and abused, sold, and trafficked females across areas they controlled in Iraq and Syria.

Before the 2014 attack, there were roughly 550,000 Ezidis in the Kurdistan Region and Iraq. As the militant group took over large swaths of territory in Nineveh province, 360,000 Ezidis escaped and found refuge elsewhere, according to the Ezidi Rescue Office.

So far, 69 mass graves which contain the remains of Ezidis have been excavated along with untold numbers of individual graves. 

Editing by John J. Catherine