By Anas al-Bar | 2025-06-02

Yazidi children taken captive by the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS) when it overran Sinjar district in northern Iraq's Ninawa province in 2014 are still suffering from the trauma of the experience.

The younger children were taken captive with their mothers, while others were taken alone because ISIS fighters had killed all their family members.

The older boys were forced to join the group's so-called "Cubs of the Caliphate" where they were subjected to indoctrination and military training as part of a plan to build a new generation of fighters.

For 20-year-old Elias -- who managed to escape ISIS in 2017 during the battles to liberate Ninawa -- the trauma of the experience is still etched in his memory.

"They ordered us to forget our language and our religion," he told Al-Fassel from Tal al-Qasab in Sinjar, where he is living with relatives, asking to use a pseudonym to protect his identity.

He does not know the fate of his parents, who he suspects were "killed by ISIS fighters during their campaign on Sinjar and buried in one of the mass graves."

But he remembers their faces clearly.

Lingering trauma

During his years of captivity, Elias said, ISIS elements would tell the children the Yazidis were "infidels" and "deserved to be killed."

"They ordered us to forget our language and religion and learn their doctrine and teachings," he said, rewarding those who complied and punishing those who did not by beating them with sticks and depriving them of food and sleep.

"We tried to pretend we were with them and to show loyalty to stay alive."

After the military defeat of ISIS, entities including the Kidnapped Yazidi Rescue Office were able to rescue more than 2,000 Yazidi children from ISIS captivity.

Many have returned safely to their families, but their tragedy is far from over.

Yazidi Organization for Documentation director Hussam Abdullah describes ISIS's targeting of Yazidi children as "one of the most heinous crimes in history."

"The group used religion to justify its violations against members of the Yazidi faith," he told Al-Fassel, subjecting the men and women it abducted "to violence and intimidation, which left adverse psychological effects on them."

ISIS focused on "erasing their identity," he said, by attempting to brainwash them with its extremist ideas and distorted interpretation of Islam.

"The rescue of these children and the return of all kidnapped Yazidis to their community does not mean their suffering has ended," he noted. "They are in dire need of care and psychological and social support today."