ISIS kidnap survivor reunited with family after 11 years
On Sunday, Kurdistan Region's Yazidi Rescue Office announced the liberation of a young Yazidi man who was kidnapped by ISIS 11 years ago, when he was just seven years old.
Hussein Qaidi, head of the office, confirmed that Rowand Hamid—originally from the village of Khanasor in the Sinjar district—was rescued from a village near Raqqa, Syria, and reunited with his family on June 29.
He is the first of his eight family members abducted by ISIS whose fate has been confirmed. 'The rest of his family remains missing,' he added, noting that 77 people from Rowand's extended clan were taken by the group, and 38 have been freed so far.
Since its establishment, the Yazidi Rescue Office has freed a total of 3,589 individuals from ISIS captivity, according to Qaidi.
The Yazidis are a Kurdish-speaking religious minority concentrated in Iraq's Nineveh region, especially around Sinjar, Shekhan, Bashiqa, and Bahzani. In August 2014, ISIS launched a genocidal campaign in Sinjar, killing thousands of Yazidi men and abducting thousands more—mostly women and children.
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