Residents of Kocho have returned to their village and the school where ISIS famously gathered some 1,200 of the village on August 15 and separated the men from the women and children. The men were killed and the women and children enslaved. “They took our honor and dignity from us in this place,” said one woman, adding that it is difficult to even look at the school now. The fate of many of the villagers is still unknown nearly three years later. ISIS was defeated in Kocho village by the Shiite force the Hashd al-Shaabi on May 25. Kocho’s most well-known resident, ISIS survivor and UN Goodwill Ambassador Nadia Murad, returned to her hometown on June 1. The small farming village south of Shingal was overrun by ISIS on August 3, 2014. Nadia was taken captive along with her two sisters. Six of her nine brothers were killed in Kocho. Her mother was also killed by the extremist group.
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