How this Yazidi man is saving IS captives - Al-Monitor: The Middle Eastʼs leading independent news source since 2012

Wilson Fache

Wilson Fache

Jun 9, 2016

A Yazidi boy, 16, who was trained by Islamic State, wraps his head in a scarf as he stands by the fence of a playground at a refugee camp near the northern Iraqi city of Duhok April 19, 2016. The stories of boys from the minority Yazidi community now living in a refugee camp near the northern Iraqi city of Duhok appear to show efforts by Islamic State to create a new generation of fighters loyal to the group's ideology and inured to its extreme violence. The training often leaves them scarred, even after re — A 16-year-old Yazidi boy, who was held by the Islamic State, wraps his head in a scarf as he stands by the fence of a playground at a refugee camp near the northern Iraqi city of Dahuk, April 19, 2016. — REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah

عربي

It had been the hundredth time he heard the ringtone that day. The middle-aged man, who wears rectangular glasses and a black mustache, immediately answered his phone. A rescue operation is in the making.

“Even the Islamic State [IS] knows my phone number now,” Hassan said as he hung up his mobile. “They don’t like me very much,” he added. And with good reason: His job is to free Yazidis kidnapped by IS.

Displaced people from the minority Yazidi sect, fleeing violence from forces loyal to the Islamic State in Sinjar town, walk towards the Syrian border on the outskirts of Sinjar mountain near the Syrian border town of Elierbeh of Al-Hasakah Governorate in this August 11, 2014. REUTERS/Rodi Said/File Photo - RTX2GIWQ

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Amberin Zaman

Amberin Zaman

In London, reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

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