Yazidi Woman Released by US-backed Syrian Fighters After 10 Years of Captivity by IS

The Syrian Democratic Forces announced on Monday that the US-backed Kurdish fighters in Syria have released a Yazidi woman who had been held for a decade by Islamic State (IS), where she was raped and forced to marry extremists.

The SDF reported that the Yazidi woman, her son, and her daughter were rescued during an ongoing security operation by Kurdish fighters in Syria's expansive northeastern al-Hol camp that houses tens of thousands of people.

SYRIA-CONFLICT-YAZIDI — This picture taken on April 13, 2019 at the Syrian Kurdish-run group Yazidi House's headquarters in the Syrian Yazidi village of Qizlajokh, about 35 kilometres west of Qamishli in the northeastern Hasake province, shows Iraqi Yazidi women and children rescued from the Islamic State (IS) group waiting to board buses bound for Sinjar in Iraq's Yazidi heartland. Syrian Kurds on April 13 repatriated 25 women and children from Iraq's Yazidi minority after freeing them during the final push against the Islamic State group, said an official with Yazidi House, which reunites rescued Yazidi children with surviving relatives. Iraq's Yazidis are a symbol of the suffering caused by IS during its rein over vast swathes of Syria and Iraq. DELIL SOULEIMAN/AFP via Getty Images

The SDF initiated Operation Humanity and Security 3 at al-Hol on Friday. They arrested three dozen people on suspicion of having ties to the terrorist group that used to control large parts of Syria and Iraq.

According to the SDF, the Yazidi woman was released by the Women's Protection Units, or YPJ, on Sunday, saying that she is originally from Hardan village in Iraq's Yazidi heartland of Sinjar. IS forces kidnapped the woman during the 2014 terrorist massacres, in which thousands of men were killed, and several women were held as sex slaves.

The group said 21 IS operatives were captured, and terrorist materials were seized on the first day of operations. It added that explosives, booby traps, and tunnels were discovered.

The woman said in a video that the YPJ released that she was staying with a family and was told not to reveal her identity or say that she is Yazidi before being taken to the camp. She also claimed that she used a fake name during her stay at al-Hol until her release.

"They destroyed my life. I was sold and bought like a sheep," the woman said about her time before being brought to al-Hol in 2019. She continued and said that she had previously lived with six other women in the home of an elderly guy named Abu Jaafar, who would physically abuse her if she refused him.

"The women who resisted rape used to be killed," she said.

IS Displaces Thousands of People

The heavily guarded al-Hol camp, run by Syrian Kurdish-led forces allied with the US, was once home to 73,000 people. The population in the area decreased over the years when many women and children were repatriated from al-Hol.

Most of the residents of Al-Hol are Syrians and Iraqis, but there are also over 60 other nationalities.

Non-Syrian and Iraqi nationals reside in a part of the camp known as the Annex, home to the most die-hard IS supporters. After IS swept over the area in 2014, many of them had traveled thousands of miles to join the extremist group.

The IS extremists used sleeper cells in the camp. In previous years, there have been several security operations that have resulted in the liberation of women who were taken as slaves and the detention of extremists.