ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A Yezidi survivor of ISIS has claimed that a man who presented himself as a civilian fleeing ISIS-held Tal Afar was in charge of the sale of hundreds of Yezidis for the last three years, including her.
Ivan Waleed, who escaped ISIS captivity in Tal Afar, told Rudaw on Thursday that she knows beyond any doubt that the man is the same person who traded the Yezidi women and girls in Tal Afar.
The man has since been said to be under arrest by Iraqi security forces south of Mosul.
Video of the man was shown first on Rudaw TV last Saturday; however, Rudaw English has chosen to publish a blurred photo of the man unless his identity is confirmed.
Waleed shared a screenshot on her Facebook account of a video report aired on Rudaw TV earlier this week showing a man whom she claims is Abu Ali.
Another Yezidi survivor and an official from the office of the Yezidi affairs in Duhok also identified the man as Abu Ali.
The TV report was about civilians fleeing the ongoing fighting between the advancing Iraqi security forces and ISIS militants in Tal Afar, one of the two major ISIS strongholds remaining in northern Iraq.
“This person bought and sold me more than one time,” Waleed wrote on her Facebook account as she shared a photo of a man with long beard. “I can never forget his face. He was in charge of the sale of all Yezidis in Tal Afar,” she continued, adding that she saw the man on Rudaw TV.
“He should be punished,| Waleed who is now in Germany said. “Many of the survivors and I know him well and are prepared to stand face to face and tell him all those things he did to me and other survivors.”
She said his arrest could help locate the remaining Yezidi captives.
Amin Khalat, from the office in charge of documenting and rescuing the abducted Yezidis in Duhok, told Rudaw that their findings show that the man appearing on television is Abu Ali.
He said they talked to a Yezidi survivor Khalida Khudeda who is in a camp for the displaced in Duhok.
Khudeda also confirmed the identity of the man, saying that she saw him taking at least two Yezidi girls in a village where Yezidi girls and women were kept. Khudeda said she also knows the real name of the man.
Abu Ali is used as a nickname in Arabic used for someone whose eldest son is named Jasim or he, himself, is named Mohammed.
Khalat, from the Yezidi office, said that they tracked Abu Ali where he was last seen in Hamam al-Alil 2 Camp south of Mosul. He said that camp organizers saw Iraqi intelligence taking him to an unknown place.
Waleed, the Yezidi survivor, said that she shared the photo of the man so that it will reach the Iraqi authorities and “imprison him.”
She said she recognized Abu Ali from his face and voice.
The fleeing man introduced himself as Abu Jasim to a Rudaw partner when he was interviewed as he fled Tal Afar.
Rudaw English cannot independently verify that Abu Ali and Abu Jasim is the same person.
Rudaw partner media Arab 24 had interviewed Abu Jasim in a reception center outside Tal Afar as hundreds of people fled the preliminary bombardment of the city before the launch of the operation.
He said at the time that they had fled the continuous bombardments.
“There is bombing and shelling everyday by aircrafts and artillery, families suffered and fled, and those who don’t have cars or sick couldn’t flee,” Abu Jasim said.
The operation to retake the diverse city of Tal Afar from ISIS militants began on August 20.
The Iraqi parliament voted to recognize ISIS persecution of Iraqi Turkmens as genocide, including in Tal Afar last month.
A prominent Yezidi member of the Iraqi parliament, Vian Dakhil, criticized the bill by the Iraqi parliament at the time.
She called the bill “unprecedented,” claiming that “all the ISIS leaders are from Tal-Afar,” adding the bill “equalized the victims to the criminals.”
The commander for the Tal Afar operations and the Iraqi intelligence were not immediately available for comment.
As of early July, figures from the Kurdistan Region show that 3,050 people have been rescued from ISIS captivity since August 2014 when ISIS launched the ongoing Yezidi genocide, of whom 1,094 were women, 334 were men, and 1,622 children of both genders.
An earlier figure from the Kurdish office in charge of the Yezidi affairs released in late April put the number of rescued men at 336.
The April figures stated that 3,400 more Yezidis are still believed to be under ISIS captivity.
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