Official: Kurdish Yezidis used as child soldiers by ISIS

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Yezidi children from the Kurdistan region are being forced to take up arms and fight for the Islamic State,  a Kurdish Yezidi member of Iraqi parliament said on Monday.  

“ISIS has established  military training camps for the Yezidi children held by the group in the Syrian city of Raqqa and Tal Afar in Mosul [province],” said Sheikh Shamo, who estimated that 600 to 700 Yezidi children are still missing.

“Over the past months, many Yezidi women, children and elders managed to escapes in various ways and have arrived in the Kurdistan region, but we still beleive more than 3,000 Yezidis remain in the hands of ISIS," Shamo added. 

On August 3, ISIS launched a massive assault on the town of Shingal. Thousands of Kurdish Yezidi families fled to Mount Shingal fearing the group’s militants, and hundreds of men were massacred inside the town.

During the attack, some 4,500 Yezidi Kurds were captured. Nine hundred Yezidis have managed to escape with the remainder still missing.