from thefreeonline by ANHA on 7 Feb 2024 in Hasakah
The young Yazidi woman who was kidnapped by ISIS mercenaries and who the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) managed to free from al-Hol Camp on Sunday said that ISIS gave her the choice between converting to the Islamic religion and being killed, and she recounted the torture, slavery and rape she was exposed to over the course of 9 years.
On Sunday (February 4), the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) were able to finally rescue a young Yazidi woman from al-Hol Camp as part of the third phase of the “Security and Humanitarian” operation launched by the Internal Security Forces pf the Rojava Revolution with the support of the Syrian Democratic Forces on January 27 of last year.
Yazidi Women’s Union: we owe to fighters’ sacrifices.6 Feb 2024 “We affirm that we, in the Yazidi Women’s Union in Rojava, will remain alongside our fighters and support their resistance and efforts in all places.
The young Yazidi woman, called “Kovan Eido Khorto,” is now 24 years old, from the village of Hardan in Şengal(Sinjar, Southern Kurdistan in northern Iraq).. She and her family, consisting of her father, mother, 4 sisters, and the village’s people, were kidnapped by ISIS mercenaries while they were trying to flee from the mercenaries in 2014.
Kovan was 14 years old when she was kidnapped by ISIS. She was taken with the other kidnappers to an area near the Syrian border, and was held in a school for 9 days.
Identifying the Yazidi Genocide
After 9 days had passed, ISIS mercenaries separated the children and young women from their families. They transferred the young women, after dividing them into groups, to different areas of Iraq, while Kovan and a number of other young women were transferred to Mosul and then to Tal Afar.
While speaking to ANHA agency, Kovan indicated that she was raped by an ISIS mercenary called “Muwafaq,” and he took her to his family’s home in Tal Afar, then handed her over to another mercenary who took her to Mosul.
Sinjar massacre.. Mass genocide and kidnapping carried out by ISIS
The Sinjar massacre marked the beginning of the genocide of Yazidis by ISIL, the killing and abduction of thousands of Yazidi men, women and children. It took place in August 2014 in Sinjar city and Sinjar District in Iraq’s Nineveh Governorate and was perpetrated by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, vowing to kill them all as infidels. Wikipedia. As Iraq and the US looked on the Kurdish PKK guerillas intervened and saved the Yazidis from genocide to the mountains, but 1000’s of women were taken as slaves.
After Mosul, two other mercenaries nicknamed “Abu Dunia and Abu Abd” transported her to Salah al-Din Governorate, where the mercenary “Abu Dunia and his family” hides.
According to Kovan, an ISIS leader known as “Abu Jaafar (Haider)” communicated with the mercenary “Abu Dunia” and ordered him to bring Kovan to Fallujah and hand her over to him, who raped, beat, and handcuffed her many times.
During this period, Kovan tried to escape from the mercenaries, but they found out about her and started beating and harming her.
Two years after that, the leader, “Abu Jaafar,” handed Kovan over to another mercenary called “Abu Radwan,” who in turn married her to another mercenary called “Abu Hudhayfah.”
The tragedy of Kovan did not end in Iraq. The mercenary “Abu Hudhayfah” headed with Kovan to the Syrian city of Albu Kamal, and during this period, “Abu Hudhayfah” was killed in the desert of the Syrian desert, and the leader “Abu Jaafar” was also killed during that period, so that she could be married to another mercenary called “Abu Asia Al-Jumaili.”
With the start of the campaign to liberate Deir ez-Zor from ISIS mercenaries in 2018, Kovn moved to al-Hol Camp designated for the families of ISIS mercenaries, where Kovan explained that ISIS mercenaries were threatening her and all the Yazidi women they had kidnapped with death if they did not convert to the Islamic religion, and they were describing them as “infidels.”
When we asked her why she did not reveal her true identity after all these years while she was in al-Hol Camp, Kovan confirmed that she was afraid because she was exposed to threats from mercenaries.
The kidnapped Yazidi woman thanked the Women’s Protection Units for freeing her from the hands of the mercenaries, and called on all Yazidi women kidnapped by ISIS to reveal their identity and return to their homes and families to be saved from the injustice they were subjected to.
She stated that she did not know anything about her family, whether they were still kidnapped by ISIS or if anything had happened to them, but she did not give up hope and hoped to meet them soon.
T/Satt. ANHA
Kovan, the Yazidi woman rescued from ISIS, manages to communicate with her family
The young Yazidi woman who was kidnapped by ISIS mercenaries was able to communicate with her family in Şengal by phone after 9 years.
The Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) , in coordination with the Şengal Protection Units,secured a phone call for the young woman, Kovan Eido, with her family in Şengal, so that she could communicate with them after a separation of 9 years.
YPJ: Liberation of Kovan represents painful blow to ISIS
The Internal Security Forces completed the third phase of the “Humanity and Security” operation, on Tuesday, which the forces launched last January 27, led by the Women’s Protection Units and in support of the Syrian Democratic Forces.
The aim was to eliminate new ISIS cells inside al-Hol camp. After the SDF multi-ethnic Rojava revolutionaries liberated NE Syria from the ISIS Caliphate, backed by international air power the jihadi prisoners and their families were housed in Al Hol Camp and the SDF has had to guard them ever since, with few States willing to repatriate their fighters.
In an interview with ANHA agency the spokeswoman of YPJ’s Media Center Rokan Jamal said : “There was an urgent need and necessity to launch the third phase of the “Humanity and Security” operation, and one of the most prominent results of this operation was the liberation of A Yazidi woman from the mercenaries who kidnapped her many years ago.”
According to a statement by the Internal Security Forces, 85 mercenaries were arrested, including the so-called “first Shari’i in Al-Hol Camp,” nicknamed “Abu Abdul Hamid,”who was the leader directly responsible for spreading Takfiri thought and issuing death fatwas and threats against the camp’s residents.
Young women of YPJ: No other option … from Women Defend Rojava..
The Internal Security Forces eliminated the so-called “Abu Sufyan al-Lahibi”, the leader of ISIS cells within the camp and its surroundings, and another mercenary accompanying him.
The Women’s Protection Units also managed to liberate a Yazidi woman, “Kovan Edo Khorto”, 9 years after she was kidnapped by ISIS mercenaries.
Rokan confirmed that the liberation of the young Yazidi woman named Kovan Edo Khorto from the village of Hardan in Shingal from ISIS mercenaries is a matter of pride for the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ).
Rokan, of the YPJ, explained that the young Yazidi woman who was rescued by the Women’s Protection Units on Sunday (February 4) from the hands of ISIS mercenaries, “had been suffering for 5 years here in al-Hol camp, as the mercenaries were pressuring her not to reveal her identity.”
Rokan touched on the use of women by ISIS mercenaries and cells to spread extremist ideas inside al-Hol camp, and said: “Unfortunately, this role is assigned to women, especially in ISIS women section to spread extremist ideas, and this is a clearly visible danger.
We tried to deter this danger by carrying out such these operations.
Yazidi genocide survivor recalls fleeing the Islamic State
Regarding the role of YPJ in the third phase of the operation, Rokan confirmed: YPJ played an effective role in protecting women from the evils of ISIS cells, while the other role was liberation women of oppression.”
Rokan stressed that their struggle will continue to liberate all Yazidi women who are still kidnapped by mercenaries.
Rokan referred to the crimes taking place in Afrin, Sere Kaniye, Azaz, Al-Bab, and occupied Jarabulus, invaded by Turkey and now beibf occupied and ‘ethnically cleansed’ of the Kurdish population by Turkish paid extremist gangs (SNA). She stressed that the units will continue their efforts to free and liberate all women from the dark and occupying forces.”
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