Yazidi Children Recount Their Escape from ISIS Captivity

In a recent TV interview, two Yazidi boys, aged 12 and 14 years, talk about how they were captured by ISIS gunmen and held in captivity and about how they managed to escape.

Following are excerpts from the interview, which aired on Russia Today TV on January 20, 2015.

Reporter: From the village of Tall Banat to the village of Tall Qasab, Dleir and Dlawar went to celebrate a Yazidi holiday, with their grandmother, uncle, and cousins. The joy on their faces quickly evaporated when they were taken captive.

ISIS gunmen stormed the place and captured everybody.

14-year-old Yazidi boy Dleir: They opened the doors and told us to get out. We went out with my uncle, aunt, cousins, and grandmother. The ISIS gunmen were in the streets of the village. They stole our car and took us to Mosul at night. There were many of them, and they had about twenty cars. For a month, we were held in a large building near Mosul Forests.

Reporter: 14-year-old Dleir and 12-year-old Dalwar were held captive for 15 days. Then, the women and girls were separated from the boys.

Dleir: After we had been separated from the men and women, they killed the men. Then, we were transferred to a school in Tal Afar, where they spoke to us in a Turkmen language. Ten days later, we were transferred to another place.

Reporter: Dleir and Dlawar began to think about escaping after they had been beaten several times by ISIS men. One evening, when they were both in hospital, the arduous journey to flee death began.

Dleir: 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 ISIS.

Reporter: Dleir and his younger brother were subjected to harsh beatings, but they never gave up the dream of escaping.

Dleir: 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.

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