WATCH: Ezidi woman flees among Hawija IDPs after three years of IS captivity

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – A Kurdish Yezidi (Ezidi) woman on Saturday fled alongside many Hawija internally displaced persons (IDPs) to Peshmerga front lines after spending three years in captivity under the Islamic State (IS).

Basima is an Ezidi woman from the village of Kojo in southern Sinjar (Shingal), the same village as UN Goodwill Ambassador Nadia Murad. After the jihadist group occupied her village mid-2014, the militants kidnapped her and moved her family to the city of Hawija in the southwest of Kirkuk Province.

Despite being only 24 years old, her unimaginable ordeal and the inhumane conditions which she suffered through under IS for the past three years have aged her. Among IS militants, she was called ‘Hajiya,' an Arabic word used for elderly women.

“Da’esh kidnapped my brothers, sisters, and parents,” Basima told Kurdistan 24, using the pejorative Arabic acronym for IS. “Da’esh militants and senior leaders were selling 11-year-old girls among each other, with prices ranging from US$10,000 to $20,000.”

She mentioned that the jihadist group heavily trafficked women they deemed beautiful, ignoring the ones that did not strike them as particularly attractive.

In the past two days, thousands of IDPs from Hawija have fled to Kirkuk through Peshmerga front lines, according to Kamal Kirkuki, one of the on-site Peshmerga Commanders.

He mentioned that Peshmerga forces had arrested IS fighters trying to hide among IDPs and enter the city of Kirkuk.

On Sep. 21, Iraqi forces launched a military operation to retake Hawija. The offensive is ongoing as forces continue to advance on the last stronghold of the jihadist group in the northern Iraq.

Thousands of civilians are expected to flee the 200,000-strong city of Hawija as clashes intensify. The fate of thousands of Ezidi women and children in IS captivity remains unknown. 

Editing by G.H. Renaud

(Additional reporting by Hemin Dalo)