How this Yazidi man is saving IS captives
Yazidi families in Iraq are paying thousands of dollars to smugglers who rescue their members from the Islamic State’s grip.
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.
Hassan, who lives in Iraqi Kurdistan, defines himself as a former businessman with contacts across Syria who now coordinates a network of two dozen smugglers who used to traffic cigarettes. But smuggling humans out of IS-held territories proved to be way more lucrative. The Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq and Yazidi families pay smugglers thousands of dollars to rescue those who were abducted.
These men are also very much aware they are taking enormous risks. Twelve of his contacts were beheaded, according to Hassan. Others were thrown in jail.
