Sold by IS in Raqa, Yazidi female fighters back for revenge (Syria)

Al Monitor ^ | July 19, 2017 11:25 | AFP

[Texas Fossil]

She was trafficked into Raqa as a sex slave by the Islamic State group but managed to escape. Now Yazidi fighter Heza is back to avenge the horrors she and thousands of others suffered.

Her hair tucked under a tightly wrapped forest green shawl embroidered with flowers, Heza says battling IS in its Syrian bastion has helped relieve some of her trauma.

"When I started fighting, I lifted some of the worries from my heart," she says, surrounded by fellow Yazidi militia women in Raqa's eastern Al-Meshleb district.

"But it will be full of revenge until all the women are freed."

She and her two sisters were among thousands of women and girls from the Kurdish-speaking Yazidi minority taken hostage by IS as it swept into Iraq's Sinjar region in August 2014.

The women were sold and traded across the jihadists' self-proclaimed "caliphate" in Syria and Iraq. Around 3,000 are believed to remain in captivity, including one of Heza's sisters.

"When the Yazidi genocide happened, Daesh snatched up the women and girls. I was one of them," Heza recounts, using the Arabic acronym for IS.

The United Nations has qualified the massacres IS carried out against the Yazidis during the Sinja r attack as genocide.

IS separated Yazidi females from the men in Sinjar, bringing the women and girls into Raqa.

"They took us like sheep. They chased us and humiliated us in these very streets," Heza tells AFP, gesturing to a row of heavily damaged homes in Al-Meshleb.

The eastern district was the first neighbourhood captured from IS by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-Arab alliance, in their months-long offensive to seize the jihadist bastion. SDF officials told AFP that their forces had already rescued several female Yazidi captives, including a 10-year-old girl, since they entered Raqa city in June.

'Despite pain, I felt joy'

Over the course of her 10-month captivity in Raqa, Heza was bought by five different IS fighters.

Her voice strained but her brown eyes still sharp, the young fighter says she prefers not to detail the abuses she suffered.

But in an indication of the extent of her trauma, Heza -- whose name means "strength" in Kurdish -- says she tried to commit suicide several times. Finally, in May 2015, she escaped from the home where she was being held to a nearby market, and she found a Syrian Kurdish family who smuggled her out of the city.

She travelled around 400 kilometres (250 miles) across war-ravaged northeast Syria back into Iraq to join the Shengal Women's Units (YPS).

The YPS -- named after the Kurdish word for Sinjar -- is a part of the US-backed SDF. Heza underwent intensive weapons training, and when the SDF announced its fight for Raqa in November 2016, she and other YPS fighters were ready.

"When the Raqa offensive began, I wanted to take part in it for all the Yazidi girls who were sold here in these streets," she says. "My goal is to free them, to avenge them."

The SDF spent months tightening the noose around Raqa before breaking into the city in June, and the Y PS took up their first positions in Al-Meshleb several weeks later. It was the first time Heza was back in the northern Syrian city since her escape. "When I entered Raqa, I had a strange, indescribable feeling. Despite the enormous pain that I carry, I felt joy," the fighter says.

'Revenge will be proportional'

Rifles are lined up in neat rows inside the abandoned home used by the YPS as their base in Al-Meshleb.

Yazidi women in brand-new uniforms gather around a crackling walkie-talkie for news from the front. Some of them, like 20-year-old Merkan, have travelled far to join the fight against IS.

Her family is originally Yazidi Turkish, but Merkan and her 24-year-old sister Arin were raised in Germany.

When they heard about IS's infamous sweep into Sinjar in 2014, they were outraged. "I could never have imagined a world like this. I didn't expect things like this could happen," Merkan says. "I was in so much pain," says the tall militiawoman. Her older sister decided to travel to Sinjar in late 2014 to join the YPS, and Merkan followed in early 2015. "I only had one goal in front of me: liberating the Yazidi women, and all women who were still in Daesh's clutches."

She had scribbled a similar pledge in Kurdish on a wall behind her.

"Through strength and struggle, we Yazidi women fighters came to Raqa to take revenge for the August 3 massacre," the graffiti says, referring to when IS entered Sinjar.

"We are avenging Yazidi girls," it adds. "Yesterday there was Al-Qaeda and today there's Daesh. We don't know who will come next. I want to go anywhere there is injustice," Merkan said. Fellow fighter Basih is sitting quietly in a neighbouring room, chain-smoking cigarettes in the muggy July afternoon. "We suffered the ugliest forms of injustice. Our revenge will be proportional to it," she said

[Texas Fossil]

Revenge? May it be So!

This morning I was told by a friend here the US that equipment for the Mosul, Iraq area continues to be moved into Raqqa. More support forces? Not sure but it is probable that the burner will be turned up on the Battle of Raqqa.(There are multiple fronts going on in the assault on ISIS there, day and night campaigns with 24/7 Howitzer support form US Marines) Such evil as ISIS must be destroyed. The sooner the better.

There are photos at the link that I did not post. May these Yazidi (Ezidi) women help drive a stake through the Great Evil called ISIS. May they liberate many civilians safely. Including the remaining women held captive by ISIS. May some of these women actually shoot those who held them enslaved.

[DIRTYSECRET]

These women would make good snipers. Would they shoot us if they won?

[Texas Fossil]

Syria Ping

[Cowgirl of Justice]

My heart breaks for these Yazidi women and is filled with contempt at BO’s admin who did NOTHING to help them.

May God be with these brave warriors.

[HLPhat]

Waiting for the Outrage from the MSM regarding what ISIS did to these women be like...

10 { crickets }

...

20 { crickets }

...

30 { crickets }

:GOTO 10

[HLPhat]

>>Would they shoot us if they won?

Just be nice to peacocks.

"So saying, the Angel Peacock, Melek Taus as we call him, spread his wings and flew away over the inaccessible mountain-tops. That is why we Yezidi, the descendants of that compassionate shepherd, sing hymns to appease and glorify the Spirit of Evil to this very day. Our hymns are scorned by the rest of the world. Both Christians and Muslims alike hate and persecute us. They call us 'Muraddun'-- Infidels and Devil-Worshippers. Our priests, Qawasls, travel secretly and do not wear priestly robes. They carry with them, hidden away from Muslim and Christian eyes, the effigy of a peacock. When we pray, we do not turn towards Mecca like the Muslims but towards the Polar Star, the immovable source of light in darkness, the point of the axis round which the whole universe resolves."
http://www.songsouponsea.com/Promenade/Tale.html

[sargon]

Someone tell those women they can't fight alongside their male counterparts. I dare you...

[Texas Fossil]

Obozo created ISIS. He is totally to blame. He and Hillary.

They only relented and gave air cover in Kobani AFTER public opinion became too great to ignore. That air cover allowed the Kurdish women to survive in Kobani. Many were killed in the effort. The defenders were largely women and young girls. There were a few men too, but estimates were 7-13,000 women (depending on definition of a woman).

They are to be respected. But Kurds have turned into a great fighting force. With a little help from the US military. (smile)

We could not have done this without them, and they could not have done it without US.

Trump said he would end ISIS, it will be done. A joint effort that needs to be respected.

[Texas Fossil]

It is best they are not mentioning this, the MSM would get it totally wrong. The only way to report on this is on the ground there in Syria. Even then, those MSM reporting must know what is actually happening. There NEVER DO!

[Texas Fossil]

One of the women in Kobani, Rehana, killed over 150 ISIS in that first battle.

No, they will not shoot us.

I am close to some of them. They are good people. As good as you will find in the Middle East.

Have you seen the 50BMG (and some are 14.5mm) rifles they make there for sniper use?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DC6z4xHWAAATqlZ.jpg

Kurdish Zagros Gen 2 >

http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2015/02/10/kurdish-zagros-gen-2/

[PSUGOP]

Amazing. Any McConnell and Ryan are our leaders. I am in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people. We need people willing to fight and win for what is right.

[Texas Fossil]

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

And be on the right side in the battle. That is as important as winning a single battle. Or temporary financial advantage.

[Texas Fossil]

They do it every day.

And Rojda Felat? Just a look at her and you know she had stood in battle. Very good commander. Respected by all.

[Mr. K]

thanks for sharing....
I am sure the enemies will appreciate it

[Texas Fossil]

What did I say that was strategically important?

[xp38]

The Happy Warrior

[PGalt]

HOORAY Heza

[jimtorr]

There are always a few around who think that posting news articles here somehow give the bad guys information they did not already have. As if Daesh people do not read AFP for themselves.

[Texas Fossil]

Yes, being an ISIS slave for a year would make you a determined adversary.

It has happened before. The time that was published the freed slave escaped, went to military training and killed her slave master with sniper's rifle. There was publicity that vanished later, protecting her identity.

Can you imagine how she felt? Put a bullet into that vermin. End of story.

[PGalt]

Can you imagine how she felt? Put a bullet into that vermin. End of story.

Justice.