Yazidi Girls Tell of Escape from IS

Besma, 15, had been in Sinjar town when IS overran the area on Aug. 3, 2014, and gunned down one of her brothers. Nine years earlier, in the midst of sectarian warfare in Iraq, Besma’s father had disappeared without a trace on his way to Mosul.

When IS attacked, Besma's family had asked one of their Sunni Arab neighbors for help, but instead they were turned over to the militants, who rounded up Besma, her mother and a surviving brother, along with some 500 other Yazidi residents.

They were then loaded onto four buses and transferred to the IS stronghold of Tal Afar, where the militants kept them for two days, feeding them eggs, cucumbers and tomatoes. Besma said they were not mistreated at that time. Yazidi men, however, were separated from the group, and Besma was transferred with her mother and younger brother to a prison, which an older women recognized as Badush, northwest of Mosul.

Besma, who recalled her ordeal in great detail, said the militants served breakfast at 9 a.m., later followed by lunch, which typically consisted of cucumbers and tomatoes. After midnight, the captives were given a dinner of grapes and bread.

The militants repeatedly insisted the Yazidis convert to Islam, Besma said. On the ninth day in Badush, coalition airstrikes targeted an area near the prison, shaking the ground beneath them. "Everyone was crying and asking God to finish us off at once, rather than endure the terror," she said.

At different stages, young attractive girls were separated from their mothers and then taken away by the militants. The rest were moved from place to place and forced to convert to Islam and pray. Besma saw foreign, Kurdish and Arab fighters and even some Yazidis helping IS.