Sisters Aliya and Base Khalaf were abducted by ISIS after the group ran over the Yazidi heartland of Shingal in 2014.
“They will be reunited with their families in Duhok camps as soon as possible,” said Hussein Qaidi, head of the Yazidi rescue office. Due to security concerns, the office is not divulging details of the rescue and where they had been held captive.
A brother of the two women spoke to Rudaw. “In our family, both of my sisters were taken captive by ISIS. Aliya is 20 years old and Base is 24,” said Muhsin Khalaf.
An estimated 6,417 women and children were taken captive by ISIS, 3,568 of whom have been rescued. Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani established the Yazidi rescue office in 2014 to find and return the missing Yazidi women and children.
“We will have more good news in the next few days,” Qaidi said, signalling that more women and children may soon return to their loved ones.
In June, six Yazidi women were rescued and returned to Kurdistan Region after being held by ISIS for more than eight years.
In August 2014, ISIS militants seized Shingal and committed genocide against the minority community. More than 400,000 Yazidis fled. The men and older women who were not able to flee were killed. More than 5,000 were buried in mass graves.
