Girl kidnapped by ISIS reunites with relatives nine years later

NINEVEH, August 17 — A 14-year-old girl was reunited with relatives, nine years after she was abducted by ISIS militants in 2014 during the group’s control over Nineveh’s Tal Afar district.

Sagga Ayoub shared her harrowing story with 964, and said she was unaware of the fate of her parents and siblings.

ISIS kidnapped close to 1,200 Iraqi Turkmen from Tal Afar, including 460 women and 120 children, during its invasion of the town. So far, 49 individuals, including 25 girls, have been freed from captivity, while the fate of the others remains unknown.

Ayoub said: “I was five years old when they separated us from our mother and took us to an orphanage in Mosul. A Chechen woman named Kalimat adopted me and my brother until Mosul was liberated.”

“After the liberation of Mosul, the security forces took us, along with the Chechen woman, to the foreigner’s prison and considered us members of the organization,” she said. “After confirming my identity, I was released from prison and taken to an orphanage in Baghdad.”

Aboub continued: “They used to call me Hajar, and my brother Ibrahim, which were not our real names. During that time, I learned the Russian language and forgot my native Turkmen language. When I joined the orphanage and started attending school, I learned Arabic.”

“The fate of my family – my parents and three siblings – is still unknown to this day.”