Freed Islamic State captive makes emotional return to Iraq village

Record ID: 877801

  • Title: Freed Islamic State captive makes emotional return to Iraq village
  • Date: 2nd June 2017
  • Summary: KOJO, SINJAR, IRAQ (JUNE 1, 2017) (REUTERS) ****WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** EX-CAPTIVE OF ISLAMIC STATE NADIA MURAD EXITING CAR IN HER VILLAGE, RETAKEN BY PARAMILITARY FORCE POPULAR MOBILISATION FROM MILITANTS MURAD WAILING AS SHE WALKS ALONG WITH POPULAR MOBILISATION FIGHTERS TO HER SCHOOL, FIGHTER HOLDING HER MURAD GREETING FIGHTERS IRAQI POLICE TAKING PICTURES WITH MURAD, MURAD GREETING YAZIDI JOURNALIST MURAD WALKING WITH POPULAR MOBILISATION COMMANDER ABU MAHDI AL-MOHANDES MURAD WALKING UP STAIRS OF HER FORMER SCHOOL WHERE ISLAMIC STATE GATHERED YAZIDIS AND SEPARATED WOMEN AND MEN AFTER CAPTURING VILLAGE MURAD HUGGING HER BROTHER AND CRYING ON SCHOOL'S ROOF MURAD SITTING ON CHAIR WITH FIGHTER (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) KOJO RESIDENT AND EX-CAPTIVE OF ISLAMIC STATE, NADIA MURAD, SAYING: "I entered this school with my mother, friends and relatives. Today the village is surrounded by mass graves. We were trapped in the village from 3 to 15 (of August 2014) and no one came to our aid. We called on the United Nations, Europe, Kurdistan and Iraq to save us but they did not, even though they knew 1,700 Yazidis were in danger." MURAD LOOKING ON (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) KOJO RESIDENT AND EX-CAPTIVE OF ISLAMIC STATE, NADIA MURAD, SAYING: "We hoped our fate would be for us to be killed like the men instead of being sold and raped by Syrians, Iraqis, Tunisians and Europeans." MURAD WALKING DOWN FROM SCHOOL'S ROOF WITH FIGHTERS (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) KOJO RESIDENT AND EX-CAPTIVE OF ISLAMIC STATE, NADIA MURAD, SAYING: "Tens were killed in the defence of land and honour, may God bless their souls and death to Daesh (a commonly used Arabic acronym for Islamic State)." MURAD LOOKING ON
  • Embargoed: 16th June 2017 09:26
  • Keywords: captive Islamic State Nadia Murad Sinjar Yazidi
  • Location: KOJO, SINJAR, IRAQ
  • City: KOJO, SINJAR, IRAQ
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace
  • Reuters ID: LVA0016JL4MKN
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Nadia Murad made an emotional return on Thursday (June 1) to the Yazidi village in northern Iraq where she was captured and sold as a slave by Islamic State three years ago.
    Murad broke down in tears as she approached the school where the militants rounded up the population of Kojo and separated the men from the women, part of a series of crimes the United Nations described as a genocide against the Yazidi minority.
    "Today the village is surrounded by mass graves," said the woman, who received the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought, speaking from the roof of the school in the presence of journalists.
    Kojo is one of the villages recaptured over the past few days by Popular Mobilisation forces, an Iranian-trained Iraqi Shi'ite paramilitary group taking part in the war on Islamic State.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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