Inside the Secret Rescue of Yazidi Sex Slaves From ISIS Captors
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Inside the Secret Rescue of Yazidi Sex Slaves From ISIS Captors
DUHOK, Iraq — It was dark as the car sped along a small road on the outskirts of the embattled Iraqi city of Mosul. The car was driving fast, but not so fast as to draw attention. That was essential. The lives of the two men in the front seat depended on their ability to keep a low profile and pass through undetected.
In the passenger seat, Khaleel Al-Dhaki was focused on the secret mission he was leading to rescue a Yazidi woman and her child, both of whom were taken by ISIS and dragged into Mosul.
"This kind of operation can't be done during daytime," he later told NBC News. "We are basically going in there to kidnap them back from ISIS."
Al-Dhaki, a lawyer by training, runs a small team of activists who regularly make dangerous trips into ISIS territory to rescue Yazidi women, members of a non-Muslim minority that live mostly in northern Iraq.
"Saving a soul is the best thing a man can do," Al-Dhaki said. "You get more motivated when you watch them meeting their families. I can't describe the moment of the reunion. We devote our whole lives to rescuing these women."
Al-Dhaki estimates ISIS kidnapped around 7,000 Yazidis and that roughly 3,000 of them managed to escape on their own or were ransomed out of bondage. The fate of 1,000 Yazidi men remains unknown, he adds.
That leaves, by his calculation, some 3,000 Yazidi women and children like Leila and Ahmed in ISIS' hands.