The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have “successfully rescued a young Yazidi man, Diyar Ali Raffo, who was abducted by ISIS in 2014 during the group’s brutal attack on the Sinjar (Shingal) region in southern Kurdistan.“
The operation took place in the city of Manbij, where SDF military teams located and liberated Diyar from an ISIS hideout. According to the SDF, the terrorist cell was planning to smuggle him into Turkish-occupied areas.
Diyar, who sustained injuries during a bombing at an ISIS hideout, shared harrowing details of his ordeal, recalling the events that tore his family apart nearly a decade ago.
“My name is Diyar Ali Raffo. I was born in 2004 in the village of Kocho, Sinjar/Shingal,” he said. “When ISIS attacked our village, they gathered all the men and imprisoned them in the school. Women, children, and the remaining men were confined to the second floor. The men were then taken to an unknown location, and their fate remains uncertain.”
Diyar recounted how ISIS forcibly separated him from his family after moving them to Tal Afar. “I was placed in a school with other children, while my family was detained in a prison near Zakho. Later, I was taken to Mosul, where I lost contact with my family. ISIS subjected us to their religious indoctrination and forced military training,” he revealed.
The young man clarified that he never joined ISIS willingly but was coerced after being kidnapped. Now, free from his captors, Diyar expressed a longing to return to Sinjar/Shingal and reunite with his family, whose whereabouts remain largely unknown.
The SDF continues its mission to dismantle ISIS cells and reunite survivors like Diyar with their families, emphasizing the long-term impacts of ISIS’s genocidal campaign against the Yazidi community.
