Yazidi activist: Islamic State detains Iraqi women, children in underground prisons in Syria
Representational photo.
Speaking to the Russian Sputnik news agency, Hussein Ali al-Khansouri said Islamic State holds no less than 2000 people at regions of Sousa, Hegeen, Shoafa and Baguz in Syria’s Deir az-Zour province as well as Desheisha region, near borders between Syria and Iraq. Among the abductees are Yazidi women and children.
“At Desheisha only, there are are more than 300 Yazidi children and adults, who were kidnapped by IS in August 2014,” he said.
All the above mentioned regions, according to Khansouri, “are being shelled by the U.S.-led Coalition as well as French jets, especially near Desheish and Hegeen.”
In February, Eidan al-Sheikh Kalo, head of the Yazidi affairs department in Duhuk, said the total number of Yazidi survivors who were held by IS since August 2014 reached 3,259 persons, with 2,076 females. The total number of Yazidi men and women who were held by IS since 2014 eached 6,417 persons, including children.
Islamic State captured Sinjar region as well as villages in west of Mosul, Nineveh province, in August 2014. The group committed genocide against Yazidis. The men were killed, while the girsl and women were taken as sex slaves. They were forced to convert from their religion.