The Kurds in Syria have returned to their mothers belonging to the Yazidi community in Iraq 12 children whose fathers are Islamic State (IS) jihadists, a Kurdish official announced on Friday (March 5th).
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“The children, who are between two and five years old, were all born to Yazidi mothers and ISIS fathers.
They were handed over to their mothers, ”said this Kurdish official from Syria, Zeyneb Saroukhan.
Dozens of women and girls from Iraq's Yazidi minority kidnapped and used as sex slaves in Syria by ISIS jihadists have returned to Iraq after IS's territorial defeat in 2019. But many 'between them had to leave behind the children they had with jihadists, for fear of being rejected by their community.
Zeyneb Saroukhan said it was the first time that such a return of children to their Yazidi mothers had taken place.
ISIS, which controlled vast areas of Iraq and Syria before its fall, in 2014 abducted thousands of Yazidi women and girls from their homes in Sinjar, northern Iraq.
The jihadists then enslaved, raped or forcibly married them in Syria.
US-backed Kurdish fighters in Syria say they have rescued dozens of these Yazidies during their years of fighting ISIS.
The Yazidi community welcomed these women on their return to northern Iraq, but its compassion did not extend to the children these Yazidies had with jihadists then.
Zeyneb Saroukhan said it was the duty of the Kurdish authorities in Syria to watch over these children until their mothers claimed them.
A large number of Yazidies who were kidnapped by ISIS are still missing.