Latest news with #AlexCrawford
Sky News
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Sky News
Islamic State fighters who return to the UK must face justice, committee says
Islamic State fighters who return to the UK after killings, terror attacks and persecuting minorities must face justice, a committee of MPs and peers has said. More than 400 people who fought for the group, also called ISIS and Daesh, are thought to have then returned to the UK, after travelling to the Middle East. ISIS once held swathes of land in Syria and Iraq and was responsible for widespread campaigns of terror, murder, and rape. This often targeted minority religious groups like the Yazidis. Sky News recently released a documentary on ISIS and the Yazidis, led by special correspondent Alex Crawford. Crawford gave evidence to parliament's Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR), which in a new report has warned that none of the ISIS supporters who had made their way back to the UK had been successfully prosecuted. It called on the government to take steps to ensure they can be tried in British courts, after ministers previously claimed such crimes were "best investigated and prosecuted under local laws" - meaning abroad. 'The UK cannot wash its hands of this' "Where the UK has jurisdiction over international crimes, the UK should seek to investigate and prosecute such crimes," the committee's latest report said. However, the report said that UK courts faced a "key barrier" to delivering justice on war crimes and genocide. This was because it is not possible to prosecute people for these crimes unless they are UK nationals, residents or "subject to service personnel laws". The committee said ministers should use the Crime and Policing Bill, currently making its way through parliament, to amend the law. Lord Alton, chairman of the JCHR, said: "This is not something the UK can simply wash its hands of because it happened overseas. "We know that British nationals committed the most horrendous crimes in Iraq and Syria under the Daesh [ISIS] regime and we have a duty to see them brought to justice. "To date, no Daesh fighters have been successfully prosecuted for international crimes in the UK and we find this unacceptable." The committee added that more must also be done to repatriate children held in camps in northeast Syria where former ISIS fighters and their families are being held. 'There are no rights for anything' Crawford was one of those who gave evidence to the committee. She first met Yazidi women captured by ISIS in 2014, and has covered the topic a number of times since, including most recently in the 10 Years Of Darkness: ISIS & The Yazidis documentary. She told the committee the camps in northeast Syria were "filled with hopelessness and helplessness, and a really strong anger and frustration". 53:22 "There are multiple human rights concerns," she said, adding that those living there essentially had no rights. She went on: "There is no right of freedom. There is no right to access to legal representation. There are no rights for anything. "Many of the children - I do not know how many - have been born there. "They are very young - younger than six - so many of them have been born there in, to be honest, very dirty, disgusting conditions."
Irish Examiner
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Culture That Made Me: Zara King reveals her heroes and touchstones
Zara King, 36, was born in Cork, but grew up on Dunmore Rd, Co Waterford. She studied journalism at Griffith College Cork. In 2010, she joined iRadio Ireland as a news and sports journalist. She later worked with several radio and TV stations, including Newstalk, before joining Virgin Media as a TV news reporter in 2017. Last year, she was appointed Virgin Media's southern news correspondent. Kay Burley I didn't watch much television growing up because I was always riding horses, but there was TV news and current affairs on in the background in the house. My grandmother – living near Courtmacsherry in Cork – had Sky on all the time in her house. Kay Burley, recently retired after 36 years in broadcasting, was on TV from as long as I can remember. She was the face of some of the biggest world events in history. You knew when Sky dispatched Kay Burley onto the ground somewhere, this was going to be a big, international story. Alex Crawford Alex Crawford of Sky News. The correspondent I most admired, as a 15-year-old, was Alex Crawford. She's a special correspondent with Sky who has been to all the war-torn places, to the remotest parts of the world. She exemplifies truth-telling and giving voice to those who don't have one. I'm in awe of her bravery, her resilience, her storytelling. She always puts people at the centre of how she tells her stories. I find that style, that way of news really appealing. She's an icon of our time. Rafters In college in Cork, I lived across the road from St Fin Barre's Cathedral, within walking distance of Washington Street where there were great nightclubs. It wasn't uncommon for myself and my friends to be watching The West Wing box set and take a notion at 10 o'clock. We'd run upstairs and get the lipstick on and we'd be down in Suas, a little cocktail bar off Washington Street, by 11 o'clock, for a cocktail. Then over to Rafters for a dance – this night club called Rafters because it was in the rafters of a building., Back up home by whatever time and then we'd be in our lectures for nine. It was a lovely time in our lives. Spice Girls My favourite gig of all time was the Spice Girls reunion concert. I was a child of the '90s when the Spice Girls were at their peak. The concert was pure nostalgia. The Spice Girls had girls of my generation believing there was nothing we couldn't achieve. That idea of girl power. We really felt that so when they announced that reunion tour gig at Croke Park, I was 100 percent intent on going. I went with one of my best friends from college. We had the time of our lives. Nothing has topped it since, and I don't think anything will. It was brilliant. Succession Succession is so well made. The production values are unreal. The characters are dislikable and yet I adore them. I love the character, Tom, Siobhan's husband. He's such a devious character, but there's something endearing about him. He never minds other people being collateral damage for his advancement. He's unapologetic about his ambition. 'You can't make a Tomlette without breaking some Greggs.' The West Wing The West Wing is my favourite box set of all time. I started watching it in college so there's nostalgia around it. My friends and I who lived together in college binge watched it. There's something comforting about going back to a box set of characters you knew before at a different time. It's like bumping into old friends. I love the idea of getting behind-the-scenes insight into the White House. It's not something you get to see every day. Graham Norton My favourite books, which are not work-related, but chill-out books, are Graham Norton's. Many are set in West Cork. I devoured his most recent one, Frankie, within a day. It was brilliant. It's set in New York. The stories are not what you think they're going to be on the face of it. I love that. There's interesting twists and turns and complex characters and heart in them. His style of writing is so descriptive you almost feel like you're sitting, smelling and tasting the things his characters go through. His & Hers Emily Rose McHugh, a participant in His & Hers, with director Ken Wardrop. Picture Patrick O'Leary An Irish documentary, which was made in 2009, is His & Hers. It has stayed with me. It was produced by Ken Wardrop. It's a simple concept. Women of all ages – from a little girl who can just about speak right up to a lady at the senior point of her life – talking about relationships with the men in their lives. They never reveal anybody's name. It's a series of these women just saying, 'He does this, he does that.' In some moments, you realise the person they're talking about is now gone. It's gorgeous storytelling, a lovely piece of Irish filmmaking. Running from Politics Eoghan Murphy is a former housing minister. His book Running from Office: How to Fail at Politics is about his time in office and why he got out of politics. It's a searingly honest account of what happened, and the pressures he experienced. At times, you're reading it and thinking, oh, I can't believe you're admitting this. That honesty is admirable. He lifts the lid on the reality of life in politics – the sense of responsibility people in positions of power have, not just to the public, but to individuals who get them into office, those who canvassed for them. Sometimes loyalty to those people probably keeps them in office, in his case longer than he might have wanted to stay. It's an interesting read. Endgame About three years ago, I went with my colleague and good friend, Muireann O'Connell, to see a Samuel Beckett play at Dublin's Gate Theatre. It was Endgame with Robert Sheehan in it. It was amazing. Robert Sheehan is an unbelievable actor. It was a memorable night in the theatre. Documentary on One I love RTÉ's Documentary on One radio documentaries and podcasts. Each week, you never know what's going to pop up. Their topics and subject matters are so varied. There's one they made about two kids from Dublin that stowed away and made their way to New York. It's so good. I love listening to other people telling stories. The way the Doc on One team produces their stories is top class – the production, the sound quality, the sound effects are so professional. Good audio production and radio is about making you feel like you're there. You get taken on a journey. I love the Doc on One. It's a great listen. My Therapist Ghosted Me I love My Therapist Ghosted Me, Joanne McNally's podcast with Vogue Williams. A lot of women of my vintage enjoy it. Joanne McNally is so funny, observant, sharp and witty. She's hilarious in the most simple and intelligent way in equal measure. To see her star rise over the last four years, she's killing it and deservedly so – a woman in comedy at the peak of her powers, selling out huge runs at Vicar Street. Amazing. I love her podcast.
Sky News
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Sky News
From the start this was different. Each war has its own fingerprint, its own bloody DNA of violence, brutality and horror. But the persecution of the Yazidis, including the buying and selling of women and girls, is a particular horror that has influenced my reporting, and recognition of similar evils, ever since. Alex Crawford, Sky News special correspondent
By Alex Crawford, Sky News special correspondent War has become my business. Four decades of being a journalist and that is not a statement I ever wanted, or thought, I'd say. I take zero pleasure in it. I used to think uncharitably of those (often wizened) reporters who used to list their 'wars' and tot them up like prizes. Covering war in hostile environments is not a job any sane person should aspire to – and yet, here I am. It feels more like an accident than an intentional career path. I first met the Yazidi women taken captive by the Islamic State in 2014. My team and I were reporting on the extremist group's takeover of vast swathes of Iraq and Syria. The world watched in horror as tens of thousands of families from the ancient ethno-religious group fled their homes to shelter on nearby Mount Sinjar. They were quickly encircled by the extremists who mounted a siege which went on for months (August to December 2014). The Iraqi government appealed for help and an international coalition led by the US dropped water and supplies to the besieged Yazidis as ISIS fighters tried to shoot down all rescue attempts. The image of terrified mothers handing their babies to total strangers on helicopters just to ensure they could make it out alive is an image which is difficult to forget. More images of horror, helplessness, and sheer terror were to emerge over the next few years. ISIS slaughtered aid workers. Beheaded journalists. Burned their captives alive. But they seemed to have a particular hatred of Yazidis – and an unbridled abhorrence for their women and girls. A few weeks later, I was sitting in a crowded tent with groups of young Yazidi women listening to them recount what they experienced during their enslavement. It's still seared in my mind. They spoke of rape, beatings and being treated worse than animals. One described how she was sold for the equivalent of a few dollars and raped by multiple ISIS fighters, but she only broke down when describing how her young children were also abused. I didn't know then but it was a tale of torture I was to hear repeatedly over the following decade. This was the personification of evil. ISIS sold the dream of an Islamic Caliphate to tens of thousands of followers around the world, drawing supporters from 200 countries. They did this partly by grooming recruits on the internet through a range of social media platforms. At their height they ruled over 11 million people. But the reality was different. Those who fled the regime told reporters they were duped. ISIS's rule was brutal. When my team entered defeated ISIS towns like Al Shadadi in northeast Syria, we found remnants of their reign of terror: scaffolding erected for public executions, underground bunkers in backyards and booby-traps in doorways. Evidence of the crimes against the Yazidi women and girls were there too; the public markets where girls were traded, and documents containing copious details, from the number of slaves bought to their shoe sizes. The extremists also raised their flag over oil fields and instigated a brutal system of taxation, which placed additional charges on non-Muslims. Those who couldn't pay were threatened with violence, imprisonment, or death. The rise of ISIS may have seemed meteoric, but the group - which began as an extremist faction within al Qaeda - had been building their power base for years. Disavowed by al Qaeda in early 2014, ISIS, or Daesh as it became known colloquially, went on to out-manoeuvre al Qaeda — turning terror into a lucrative military machine. At their peak, the group was responsible for orchestrating or inspiring terror attacks around the world in cities such as Paris (2015), and Brussels and Orlando (both 2016) to name but a few. Western governments became increasingly alarmed as their nationals were recruited to either help fight jihad in the self-declared caliphate or mount attacks in multiple countries. Meanwhile in large swathes of Iraq and Syria, whole communities were terrorised. Everyone who didn't agree with their strict interpretation of sharia law were targets but they reserved particular hatred for the Yazidis. THE CALIPHATE Islamic State militants in Tel Abyad, northeast Syria in 2016. Pic: AP In the village of Kocho, ISIS embarked on a killing frenzy, slaughtering hundreds of people in a single day and burying them in mass graves. It's one of more than 80 villages dotted around the base of the 100km-long mountain range that is Mount Sinjar in Iraq. Entering Kocho now is like stepping back in time. The buildings which were once family homes, are in ruins. Personal belongings lie among the rubble – shoes, pans and picture frames, the remnants of lives torn apart in an instant. Back in 2014, the tens of thousands who lived in the region found themselves in the way of the extremists' ambitions for a caliphate. The villages around Mount Sinjar stood in the path of their plans to join up Mosul in Iraq - which ISIS had seized two months earlier – and Raqqa, the group's headquarters in Syria. By seizing all the territory in-between, the extremists planned to establish a sizeable empire. The Sinjar region had a range of different ethnic and religious groups living together in the area including Christians, Sunni and Shia Arabs but it was also home to the world's largest group of Yazidis. The Yazidis have been persecuted for their beliefs through the centuries after being wrongly denounced as devil worshippers by some medieval Muslim scholars. This latest attack by ISIS is the closest the ethnic group has come to being fully erased. The survivors talk of the jihadis separating them into groups. Men were rounded up, taken outside the villages and shot. One man told me he survived by lying unnoticed under a pile of about 60 dead bodies. Older women seemed to have suffered a similar fate with many still missing. Some of the survivors spoke of being given the option of converting to Islam but few agreed. Young boys were groomed to be killers in ISIS training camps. While the young women and girls were destined to become sex slaves. Kovan was only 14 and had yet to get her period when she was captured by ISIS. "I was raped every day for years," she says. "How can they do that to a child?" Her anger is also aimed at the ISIS wives. "They knew exactly what their men were doing," she says. "They used to prepare me to be raped by their husbands. They'd put lipstick on me, do my hair and make me wear revealing clothes." The battle for Mosul was fraught with danger. Snipers seemed to be hiding on every rooftop. Once, three suicide car bombs detonated within half an hour, a few dozen metres from us. I remember running frantically with my team as a vehicle was spotted driving through the alleyways towards us. The air was thick with dust as we ducked into an abandoned home. The deafening boom of an explosion followed. The force of the blast sent soldiers' hats flying and pushed them into doorways. ISIS took control of Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, in June 2014. They bedded in, building tunnels and barricades across the city. It took nine long months for the US-led coalition to dislodge them, with nearly a million people forced to flee their homes. "They have destroyed everything of ours," a man said as he fled, clutching a child in one hand and a bag of belongings in the other. In the streets you could see mines and unexploded bombs – and amid all this mayhem, there were Yazidis too, many of them dragged along with the retreating ISIS fighters and families. MEET THE DETECTIVES The Yazidi 'detectives' are two men on a mission – to find the members of their community taken by ISIS more than a decade ago. They embody the survival spirit of this ethnic minority, as well as the desperation of the families searching for their loved ones. Adeeb is based in Iraq, while Barjes lives in a large refugee area in northeast Syria. When we first met Barjes, he was jobless and working out of his tent. Adeeb was switching between his living room and car. They use burner phones, create fake personas, and track down those who've disappeared through painstaking digging and a little subterfuge. Barjes tells us he's developed a network of spies inside the camps in northeast Syria which are filled with ISIS families and affiliates. They inform him of Yazidi captives or those suspected of being Yazidi. He then attempts to gain their trust by chatting to them on the phone and taking pictures which he cross checks with their relatives. It's been so long, their relatives often only recognise them through birthmarks or scars. Adeeb shows us a huge spread of pictures he's collated from the relatives of the missing Yazidis, many were only toddlers or teens when taken. More than 2,000 people are still missing, believed to be alive. They've had many successes – Kovan is one of them. She was found more than a decade after being taken, and was at first too frightened to identify herself as Yazidi. Like other Yazidi women in her situation, Kovan faced a stark choice once she was rescued; returning home meant leaving behind the two children she had while in captivity. The Yazidi community struggles to accept the offspring of ISIS fighters, who are legally designated as Muslims, after the brutality they suffered. They also fear that ISIS relatives will come and claim the children as theirs. Human rights experts writing in Just Security, an American-based digital law and policy journal, described ISIS's use of rape as a weapon of war. "The capture, confinement, rape and impregnation of Yazidi women and girls were not just tactics of war, but central to ISIS's strategy to destroy the Yazidi people and erase their identity for future generations." The ISIS tented camps in northeast Syria, home to tens of thousands of people, are surrounded by barbed wire, fences and armed guards. There's little electricity or running water in either Al Hol or the smaller camp Al Roy. Some inhabitants have been here for six years since being rounded up in 2019 when the coalition troops retook the last bit of territory held by ISIS. Among the crowds of mostly women and children kept here, there are believed to be an unknown number of Yazidis still held as sex slaves. The mainly Kurdish-led forces who run the camps organise regular raids and their focus is two-fold: to hunt down hidden weapons and hidden women. When they find women they suspect of being Yazidi they whisk them away in armed vehicles to interrogate them away from the camp. Only when their identities can be confirmed are they connected with Yazidi organisations who can help with their rehabilitation. ISIS groups in the camps go to lengths to hold on to their captives, hiding them in tunnels or moving them to other hiding places. The Yazidi 'detectives' often pose as ISIS men on the outside to secure the trust of the captives inside the camps. Their information can lead the troops to the exact tent – but often the women are nowhere to be found by the time the troops get there. Many of the girls and women emerge from captivity unable to remember their Kurdish mother tongue after being forced to speak Arabic during their enslavement. They're taken first to safehouses where they're given time to get used to freedom. Nalin Darwish Rasho runs a safe house for the Yazidi House Foundation. "Often we are the first people they've been able to trust for years," Nalin says. The rural calm of the safehouse helps with the healing but the scars these survivors carry will never heal. TRACING THE DISAPPEARED It was March 2019, and we were about a kilometre away from Baghouz with the coalition troops breathing down the necks of ISIS. Women clad in burqas scurried around holding children while men in black whizzed around on motorbikes. This was the extremists' last stand. A humanitarian corridor was created to allow ISIS to send out their families. To the astonishment of the watching media, thousands of people streamed out. Wounded men were interrogated and taken to multiple prisons in northeast Syria, where many of those accused of being ISIS fighters – many of them foreigners including Britons - still are. Those we spoke to had never seen lawyers or been allowed to speak to their families. Among the large crowd of humanity pouring out of Baghouz, there were also Yazidis. But at that time, the focus was firmly on defeating ISIS. The tracing of mass graves of their victims began a few years before the last bit of ISIS territory was recaptured. But there were considerable challenges from the off: the victims were spread across two countries, both coping with the aftermath of huge battles and billions of dollars' worth of war destruction. Syria was still in the throes of civil war. In 2017, the Iraqi authorities asked for help from the UN in tracking down the victims with a view to holding to account those responsible for war crimes and genocide. UNITAD was formed – a special UN investigative team that was given a budget of about $22m per year. Within a few years, UNITAD and the Iraqi authorities had identified more than 200 mass graves in Iraq, but the UN also documented multiple challenges in identifying the remains as well as locating living relatives. It continues to be a monumental task. The Iraqi authorities pointed out that they needed financial help and support from the international community to complete such a big task. They also accused UNITAD of withholding evidence and being non-co-operative. There were clear differences in approach and co-ordination between the UNITAD team and the Iraqi authorities. "UNITAD's insistence on strict conditions for evidence sharing with Iraqi authorities ostensibly designed to uphold international standards — including the requirement that Iraq abolish the death penalty and ensure fair trials — have proven an insurmountable hurdle for the Iraqi legal system." Alaanah Travers, writing for the Washington Institute In 2024, the Iraqi government decided not to extend the mandate of the UN investigation's team. After seven years of investigations, there were just a handful of prosecutions for crimes against humanity and genocide – mostly in Germany and Portugal – and none in Iraq. During this period, the Iraqi authorities have continued to execute former ISIS fighters for the crime of belonging to a terror group, which has frustrated international human rights lawyers who fear that key perpetrators who could provide evidence in war crimes and genocide trials, are being killed without due process. For many of the survivors, it has been a bitter blow. They feel disillusioned with both the Iraqi justice system and the lack of substantial progress by UNITAD. They complain vociferously about the lack of effort as they see it, to track down the missing or identify the dead. To many it feels like they have been left in limbo – with no answers and in many cases no corpses to bury and mourn. Villages like Kocho lie empty and eerily silent; a testament to how little progress has been made in achieving justice for those who suffered so much. It took nearly a decade for the world to officially recognise what ISIS did to the Yazidis as genocide. Germany is one of the only ones to prosecute those who took part in it. By August 2023, the UK government had joined the growing list of countries. "The Yazidi population suffered immensely at the hands of Daesh, nine years ago and the repercussions are still felt to this day. Justice and accountability are key for those whose lives have been devastated." Lord Ahmad, then minister of state for the Middle East There are few images of what went on inside the Islamic State self-declared caliphate because they banned the use of cameras and mobile phones – we've got just glimpses of executions, propaganda videos of beheadings and burnings. But we have the survivors' testimonies, and they have proved vital. It's hard to explain why the plight of the Yazidis has resonated so much - except to say why wouldn't a decade's-long persecution of a people by one of the world's most evil, fanatical extremist groups, resonate with every human? More than a decade on, the Yazidi people are still awaiting justice. They're fighting to ensure the world does not forget what ISIS did – and what the world did not do at the time. 10 Years Of Darkness: ISIS And The Yazidis is on Sky Documentaries on Friday 2 May at 8pm and then Sky News at 9pm, also on Sky News YouTube at 9pm. CREDITS Reporting: Alex Crawford, special correspondent Production: Chris Cunningham, senior specialist producer Shorthand production: Michael Drummond, foreign news reporter Editing: Serena Kutchinsky, assistant editor Design: Giorgio Tonello Pictures: Reuters, Associated Press, Chris Cunningham Documentary Producer / Director: Jake Lea-Wilson Documentary Editor: Katie Child Location Producers: Fazel Hawramy, Fahad Fattah, Zein Ja'far Commissioning Editor: Sarah Whitehead Executive Producer: Jonathan Levy Top Built with Shorthand
Scottish Sun
30-04-2025
- Scottish Sun
I was kidnapped at 14 & auctioned off to ISIS brute whose WIFE prepped me for rape…I had to give up my kids to escape
Cooking in her simple, rural kitchen, 14-year-old Kovan froze as she heard panic breaking out all around her. The peaceful life of the schoolgirl, who had grown up in a loving family as part of the Yazidi community in Sinjar, northern Iraq, was to brutally change on that day in 2014 - as they learned ISIS terrorists were heading towards them. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 15 Kovan was just a teenager when she was sold into sex slavery for an ISIS warrior Credit: Supplied 15 She was forced to leave behind her children that were the product of rape Credit: Supplied 15 ISIS treated the Yazidi community in a cruel way and forced them into being slaves Credit: Alamy 15 The Yazidis have lived in Western Asia for years and have often been persecuted Credit: Reuters With little time to act, the family and their neighbours grabbed whatever they could and headed for the barren Sinjar mountains. Her family split up with the older and the younger ones going in a car and the fitter members, like her, walking. 'Suddenly they appeared and seized us in the middle of the road,' she says. 'They took us to the Syrian border where they kept us in a school for nine days. 'We were terrified. Then they separated us from our relatives, forcing the girls onto a bus that took us to a house guarded by ISIS militants where men would arrive, choose girls and rape them.' It was the start of years of horrific abuse that saw her bought as a slave, repeatedly raped and beaten - even after ISIS had been defeated. Kovan and other young girls were put up for auction and she was 'bought' by a senior figure within ISIS and made to be the family slave. 'I served and did everything for them. They told me you are a 'sabaya' (slave). He kept me and raped and beat me. When ISIS gathered in the guestroom, he wanted me to serve them, to bring food and drinks and to appear in revealing clothes. This went on for two years.' Kovan's story and others who were enslaved and abused by ISIS is told in the harrowing documentary, 10 Years of Darkness: ISIS & The Yazidis airing on Sky this Friday, which chronicles the systematic slaughter of the Yazidi people in Sinjar in 2014, the mass abductions of women and children and how their suffering continues today. In an exclusive interview, journalist and filmmaker, Alex Crawford who has reported on the horrors faced by the Yazidis for over a decade, tells us: 'Seven years after the world saw that the Islamic State had been crushed and the last bit of territory had been taken from them, there are still women being rescued from captivity. And there are thousands more still in captivity, who continue to be abused. That is shocking.' In a further torturous twist, even the lucky ones rescued who, like Kovan, are now mothers, are told they will have to give up their children in return for safety. I fought ISIS in Syria & I know bloodthirsty thugs are plotting comeback after fall of Assad - Europe must be ready, says Brit fighter The story of ISIS and the Yazidis begins in 2011 when many countries in the Middle East were experiencing uprisings against usually dictatorial regimes that had been in power for years. Syria was one of them. 'At the beginning it was a rebellious civilian uprising,' says Alex. 'That went on for at least a couple of years. The first time I saw a lot of men clad in black was at the end of 2013, flying the flag of Jihad or Holy War. "Groups like that were the beginning of a new form of extremism. And as they grew and merged with other groups, they got stronger and very little stood in their way.' Sharia law 15 Journalist Alex has spoken to many victims of the ISIS regime Credit: Sky 15 ISIS handed out cruel punishments to people who didn't follow their rules Credit: Alamy By 2014 the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) had been firmly established. There were an estimated 30,000 fighters dedicated to their strict interpretation of Islamic law which they ruthlessly imposed on society. Public amputation of legs and arms for stealing and other crimes took place and persecution of homosexuals saw them being thrown off buildings and stoned. ISIS expanded to the area of Sinjar where more than 400,000 Yazidis lived. Confronted with the threat – convert or die – they fled into the desert. Executions and shootings of the men and the enslaving of Yazidi women and children followed. In the years following their rise, ISIS expanded its operations beyond the Middle East, carrying out a series of devastating attacks in Europe which created a huge political momentum in the West to go in and topple ISIS. Abused in detention camp 15 Many Yazidi women are still being tortured by ISIS brutes 10 years on Credit: Sky 15 Nalin Rasko runs a safe house for survivors like Kovan Credit: Supplied When it was defeated in 2019, most of the men were imprisoned while their families were sent to a detention facility in Northern Syria. But they took thousands of their Yazidi 'slaves' with them. 'The camp is full of ISIS sympathisers and people who are connected to them,' says Alex. 'The troops trying to keep control regularly carry out raids to stop the build-up of arms and weapons. Here, Yazidi women are still being held captive but identifying them has been a mammoth task. 'The Kurdish-led Syrian democratic forces control the sprawling Al-Hawl camp and the other camps in that area, supported by the coalition, but they are basically left to their own devices to run the show. The women would prepare us, put makeup on us, for the men to violate. They all knew that their men were raping us. "Al-Hawl is bigger than some British cities and at one stage it had 70,000 people in it. It's a huge place where you can secrete contraband and even bombs and hide captives. "The camp leaders know there are Yazidis hidden in the camp but they don't know exactly who they are and how to get them out. 'Kovan was found there with her young son and daughter during a night raid searching for guns last year. 15 Al-Hawl detention camp houses thousands of ISIS terrorists but also Yazidi victims Credit: Getty 15 A boy plays in the ISIS detention area of the camp Credit: Getty 15 Those who escape the clutches of their ISIS abusers are moved to Yazidi refugee camps Credit: Supplied "Her abuse had been continuing here because the children of ISIS men are growing up and male teenagers are encouraged and coerced by the extremist factions in there to rape and have sexual relations with the women, to impregnate them. "It's a continuation of the abuse. Kovan was forced to link up with a guy there just to fend off all the others. 'The first thing that struck me when I first met Kovan, given that she was ten years on from being a teenager when she was first captured, was just how much of a child she still looked. 'She was very matter of fact, in many ways with a disturbing lack of emotion over the most horrendous things that the men were doing to her. But she got really angry when I asked her about the women – the wives of the ISIS fighters.' Cruel wives 15 Farida Khalaf is another Yazidi woman who survived being abused by ISIS Credit: Supplied 15 Kovan claimed the wives of the men were just as abusive Credit: AFP 'Their wives behaved just like their ISIS husbands,' says Kovan. 'They always hit and insulted us. They would prepare us, put makeup on us, for the men to violate. They all knew that their men were raping us. I hated my life for the way they treated me. "They were so cruel. They wore us down mentally and emotionally until we hated and were disgusted with ourselves.' Since being rescued, Kovan has been living in a safe house but, just when she thought she was free from suffering, she has faced the most appalling of choices. 'Every Yazidi woman who is rescued, faces this most extraordinarily difficult Hobson's Choice – to ensure your own survival, you are probably going to have to give up your children,' says Alex. 'The Yazidi community doesn't admit Muslims,' explains Kovan, whose son and daughter were fathered by two ISIS men as a result of rape. 'They are my children, but no one will welcome them, because they are ISIS children and Muslim. This is the reality. What can I do? I go back to my family and they go back to theirs. "This is very difficult, but I don't have any other option. This is the reality we are forced to accept.' No end in sight 15 Yazidi women who became pregnant have been separated from their Muslim children Credit: Times Media Ltd 15 Many Yazidis are stuck living in sprawling camps, sometimes with their ISIS abusers Credit: Supplied Kovan made the heartbreaking decision to say goodbye to her two young children and return home by herself while they went back to the families of her two ISIS rapists. But 'home' is another huge camp settlement for the Yazidis. 'There's no end game in sight,' says Alex. 'They've exchanged internment camps for refugee camps and are still living in tents. There's no sort of village being created. There's nothing. 'No one knows what happened to Kovan's parents but we can probably presume they were killed. One of her brothers and sisters is still missing, and others are back in the community or have found asylum in another country. EXCLUSIVE: ISIS plotting wave of terror from camps, warns general who defeated cult By Henry Holloway, Deputy Foreign Editor ISIS could unleash a new wave of terror by springing fighters from camps like the one holding Shamima Begum, a top general who helped defeat the death cult has revealed. General Mazloum Abdi, who leads the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) - a Kurdish-led US-backed militia, sounded the alarm over the resurgent terror group. Speaking to The Sun in an interview with documentarian and ex-soldier Alan Duncan, Abdi said there are currently 10,000 male fighters in prisons ready to bring devastation back to the Middle East. General Abdi revealed SDF believe that ISIS forces - which were bravely driven back by his troops - are currently organising a prisonbreak of fighters still held in Syria. He also warned the threat of ISIS continues in the West. General Abdi said: "The threat of jihadist groups - not just ISIS - will exist until the fundamentals they were founded on are destroyed. "We must continue our struggle." He also called on the West to do more to bring these fighters to justice - and to support trials and convictions for the atrocities they committed in the Middle East. General Abdi told The Sun: "The threat of ISIS in detention centres and camps is increasing and there is an increase in the movement of ISIS in general. "There is a need to intensify efforts to continue to fight against ISIS if we don't want to see a resurgence." READ MORE HERE 'The suffering of the Yazidis is far from over. They still don't feel safe. Their homeland remains in ruins, there are no reparations and there is very little, if any, justice. "And for those lucky enough to be freed, ISIS has somehow perpetuated the pain of their genocide by leaving mothers with a decision that no woman would ever want to be faced with. "But despite all of this, some Yazidi survivors have really led from the front, refused to be beaten by ISIS, spoken at international arenas, demanded justice, refused to be forgotten by the world. And they are some of the most resilient, determined, courageous women that I've ever met.'
The Sun
30-04-2025
- The Sun
I was kidnapped at 14 & auctioned off to ISIS brute whose WIFE prepped me for rape…I had to give up my kids to escape
Cooking in her simple, rural kitchen, 14-year-old Kovan froze as she heard panic breaking out all around her. The peaceful life of the schoolgirl, who had grown up in a loving family as part of the Yazidi community in Sinjar, northern Iraq, was to brutally change on that day in 2014 - as they learned ISIS terrorists were heading towards them. 15 15 15 With little time to act, the family and their neighbours grabbed whatever they could and headed for the barren Sinjar mountains. Her family split up with the older and the younger ones going in a car and the fitter members, like her, walking. 'Suddenly they appeared and seized us in the middle of the road,' she says. 'They took us to the Syrian border where they kept us in a school for nine days. 'We were terrified. Then they separated us from our relatives, forcing the girls onto a bus that took us to a house guarded by ISIS militants where men would arrive, choose girls and rape them.' It was the start of years of horrific abuse that saw her bought as a slave, repeatedly raped and beaten - even after ISIS had been defeated. Kovan and other young girls were put up for auction and she was 'bought' by a senior figure within ISIS and made to be the family slave. 'I served and did everything for them. They told me you are a 'sabaya' (slave). He kept me and raped and beat me. When ISIS gathered in the guestroom, he wanted me to serve them, to bring food and drinks and to appear in revealing clothes. This went on for two years.' Kovan's story and others who were enslaved and abused by ISIS is told in the harrowing documentary, 10 Years of Darkness: ISIS & The Yazidis airing on Sky this Friday, which chronicles the systematic slaughter of the Yazidi people in Sinjar in 2014, the mass abductions of women and children and how their suffering continues today. In an exclusive interview, journalist and filmmaker, Alex Crawford who has reported on the horrors faced by the Yazidis for over a decade, tells us: 'Seven years after the world saw that the Islamic State had been crushed and the last bit of territory had been taken from them, there are still women being rescued from captivity. And there are thousands more still in captivity, who continue to be abused. That is shocking.' In a further torturous twist, even the lucky ones rescued who, like Kovan, are now mothers, are told they will have to give up their children in return for safety. I fought ISIS in Syria & I know bloodthirsty thugs are plotting comeback after fall of Assad - Europe must be ready, says Brit fighter The story of ISIS and the Yazidis begins in 2011 when many countries in the Middle East were experiencing uprisings against usually dictatorial regimes that had been in power for years. Syria was one of them. 'At the beginning it was a rebellious civilian uprising,' says Alex. 'That went on for at least a couple of years. The first time I saw a lot of men clad in black was at the end of 2013, flying the flag of Jihad or Holy War. "Groups like that were the beginning of a new form of extremism. And as they grew and merged with other groups, they got stronger and very little stood in their way.' Sharia law 15 By 2014 the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) had been firmly established. There were an estimated 30,000 fighters dedicated to their strict interpretation of Islamic law which they ruthlessly imposed on society. Public amputation of legs and arms for stealing and other crimes took place and persecution of homosexuals saw them being thrown off buildings and stoned. ISIS expanded to the area of Sinjar where more than 400,000 Yazidis lived. Confronted with the threat – convert or die – they fled into the desert. Executions and shootings of the men and the enslaving of Yazidi women and children followed. In the years following their rise, ISIS expanded its operations beyond the Middle East, carrying out a series of devastating attacks in Europe which created a huge political momentum in the West to go in and topple ISIS. Abused in detention camp 15 15 When it was defeated in 2019, most of the men were imprisoned while their families were sent to a detention facility in Northern Syria. But they took thousands of their Yazidi 'slaves' with them. 'The camp is full of ISIS sympathisers and people who are connected to them,' says Alex. 'The troops trying to keep control regularly carry out raids to stop the build-up of arms and weapons. Here, Yazidi women are still being held captive but identifying them has been a mammoth task. 'The Kurdish-led Syrian democratic forces control the sprawling Al-Hawl camp and the other camps in that area, supported by the coalition, but they are basically left to their own devices to run the show. The women would prepare us, put makeup on us, for the men to violate. They all knew that their men were raping us. "Al-Hawl is bigger than some British cities and at one stage it had 70,000 people in it. It's a huge place where you can secrete contraband and even bombs and hide captives. "The camp leaders know there are Yazidis hidden in the camp but they don't know exactly who they are and how to get them out. 'Kovan was found there with her young son and daughter during a night raid searching for guns last year. 15 15 15 "Her abuse had been continuing here because the children of ISIS men are growing up and male teenagers are encouraged and coerced by the extremist factions in there to rape and have sexual relations with the women, to impregnate them. "It's a continuation of the abuse. Kovan was forced to link up with a guy there just to fend off all the others. 'The first thing that struck me when I first met Kovan, given that she was ten years on from being a teenager when she was first captured, was just how much of a child she still looked. 'She was very matter of fact, in many ways with a disturbing lack of emotion over the most horrendous things that the men were doing to her. But she got really angry when I asked her about the women – the wives of the ISIS fighters.' Cruel wives 15 15 'Their wives behaved just like their ISIS husbands,' says Kovan. 'They always hit and insulted us. They would prepare us, put makeup on us, for the men to violate. They all knew that their men were raping us. I hated my life for the way they treated me. "They were so cruel. They wore us down mentally and emotionally until we hated and were disgusted with ourselves.' Since being rescued, Kovan has been living in a safe house but, just when she thought she was free from suffering, she has faced the most appalling of choices. 'Every Yazidi woman who is rescued, faces this most extraordinarily difficult Hobson's Choice – to ensure your own survival, you are probably going to have to give up your children,' says Alex. 'The Yazidi community doesn't admit Muslims,' explains Kovan, whose son and daughter were fathered by two ISIS men as a result of rape. 'They are my children, but no one will welcome them, because they are ISIS children and Muslim. This is the reality. What can I do? I go back to my family and they go back to theirs. "This is very difficult, but I don't have any other option. This is the reality we are forced to accept.' No end in sight 15 15 Kovan made the heartbreaking decision to say goodbye to her two young children and return home by herself while they went back to the families of her two ISIS rapists. But 'home' is another huge camp settlement for the Yazidis. 'There's no end game in sight,' says Alex. 'They've exchanged internment camps for refugee camps and are still living in tents. There's no sort of village being created. There's nothing. 'No one knows what happened to Kovan's parents but we can probably presume they were killed. One of her brothers and sisters is still missing, and others are back in the community or have found asylum in another country. EXCLUSIVE: ISIS plotting wave of terror from camps, warns general who defeated cult By Henry Holloway, Deputy Foreign Editor ISIS could unleash a new wave of terror by springing fighters from camps like the one holding Shamima Begum, a top general who helped defeat the death cult has revealed. General Mazloum Abdi, who leads the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) - a Kurdish-led US-backed militia, sounded the alarm over the resurgent terror group. Speaking to The Sun in an interview with documentarian and ex-soldier Alan Duncan, Abdi said there are currently 10,000 male fighters in prisons ready to bring devastation back to the Middle East. General Abdi revealed SDF believe that ISIS forces - which were bravely driven back by his troops - are currently organising a prisonbreak of fighters still held in Syria. He also warned the threat of ISIS continues in the West. General Abdi said: "The threat of jihadist groups - not just ISIS - will exist until the fundamentals they were founded on are destroyed. "We must continue our struggle." He also called on the West to do more to bring these fighters to justice - and to support trials and convictions for the atrocities they committed in the Middle East. General Abdi told The Sun: "The threat of ISIS in detention centres and camps is increasing and there is an increase in the movement of ISIS in general. "There is a need to intensify efforts to continue to fight against ISIS if we don't want to see a resurgence." 'The suffering of the Yazidis is far from over. They still don't feel safe. Their homeland remains in ruins, there are no reparations and there is very little, if any, justice. "And for those lucky enough to be freed, ISIS has somehow perpetuated the pain of their genocide by leaving mothers with a decision that no woman would ever want to be faced with. "But despite all of this, some Yazidi survivors have really led from the front, refused to be beaten by ISIS, spoken at international arenas, demanded justice, refused to be forgotten by the world. And they are some of the most resilient, determined, courageous women that I've ever met.'
