YPJ rescued three Yazidis from ISIS captivity
Shafaq News/ On Friday, the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) announced that they freed three kidnapped Yazidi women from Al-Hol camp in Syria and the Syria-Iraq border area.
A YPJ statement affirmed that “the units rescued two young girls and a toddler kidnapped during the ISIS attack on Sinjar and surrounding areas on August 3, 2014."
The statement revealed that "Aziza Khaled Ali, 25, and Tawaf Daoud Jato, 24, are the girls. The infant, Khonaf, was only two months old when kidnapped,” noting that "Aziza and Khonaf were freed from Al-Hol camp, while Tawaf was found at the Syrian-Iraqi border. Interrogation revealed she was a Kurdish Yazidi from Tal Ozir, Sinjar, and was attempting to escape alone."
The Yazidis are an ethnoreligious group from Kurdish regions in Iraq, Syria, and Turkiye. In the summer of 2014, ISIS attacked Sinjar district in western Nineveh Governorate, killing and wounding many Yazidis, displacing them, and destroying their homes.
On October 19, 2023, Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani vowed to continue efforts to rescue the Yazidis kidnapped by ISIS until all victims are freed and their fates are known.