The rescued Yezidis were transferred to Duhok to be seen and registered by Kurdish government officials.
SHINGAL, Kurdistan Region—After nearly three years of captivity 36 Yezidi men, women and children were rescued from ISIS-controlled areas on Friday night that took months of negotiations and thousands of dollars in ransom payment.
According to Rudaw correspondent Tahsin Qasim who witnessed the return of the Yezidis and their reception by Kurdish Peshmerga forces and Shingal authorities, the people were caught by ISIS militants in August 2014 at Tel Banat and transported to Baaj west of Mosul.
They had then been claimed by an Arab Sheikh of the Shammar tribe.
According to officials, US$60,000 has been paid to middlemen to arrange their safe passage to Kurdish areas.
The group includes 26 children from both genders, and five women and five men, Hussein Qaedi of the Kurdistan region's department for Yezidi rescues office in Duhok said.
The rescued men, women and children carried signs of exhaustion, dehydration and hunger and they had trekked five miles to reach safety.
They are all members of the same family.
For almost three years they were confined to a small farm where they were warned by the Arab Sheikh not to venture out for fear of being spotted by ISIS men.
The Arab tribal Sheikh who kept them on the farm told Rudaw that he treated them as members of his own family.
The Sheikh himself also fled with the Yezidis.
Just days before their planned rescue four members of the Yezidi group were injured by an air strike that targeted ISIS bases nearby. One of them died from his injuries.
The Yezidis were transferred to Duhok to be seen and registered by the Kurdish government office in charge of Yezidi affairs. From there, they will be reunited with their families and relatives living in the Kurdistan Region.
Qaedi said that that more than 3,000 Yezidis have been rescued as of today — 1,589 children, 1,076 women, and 336 men.
He said 3,400 more Yezidis are still believed to be under ISIS captivity, adding that they would be more "good news" regarding new rescue missions.
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