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of their unit and making him responsible for a smuggler to meet the boy and his
for meting out vicious beatings for brother Hachim, now 7, at the front
infractions like failing to reassemble a lines. “It was very scary,” Shalal recalls,
weapon fast enough. describing how he guided his brother
Two cousins, both 16, explained through bushes in the dark. Shalal’s
how they were trained in an all-Yezidi mother and sister were smuggled out
unit, then deployed to the “Line of later for roughly $10,000 each.
Paradise”—ISIS’s name for the Syrian The family’s escape was in part the
front lines where many Yezidi boys result of the bizarre economy of ISIS’s
were sent as cannon fodder, surrounded wartime loss of territory. In its waning
by enemy troops and hammered from days as leaders of a would-be state, ISIS
above by airstrikes. The cousins say they had a sort of Craigslist of captives it
had to wear suicide belts much of the was offering for sale—cashing in on the
time, packed with metal intended to kill victims it had seized during its march
attacking troops if they overwhelmed across Syria and Iraq. The government
the Yezidi front line. of Kurdistan, in northern Iraq, set up
Many Yezidi boys got detailed les- a $10 million fund to help pay for the
sons on how to kill. In some camps, the return of kidnapped children. Many,
student soldiers were forced to watch including Shalal’s father who ransomed
instruction videos on beheading, from them and now cares for them all, are still
how to lift the prisoner’s head by his waiting to be reimbursed.
scalp to where to cut the throat. Yezidi
boy returnees described learning how Physical deliveraNce for the Ye-
to remove hands, arms or legs as pun- zidi boys was just the beginning of the
ishment for crimes like theft. One de- journey back. Shalal was aggressive and
scribed an operating- theater-like room angry when he first returned, said his fa-
where they watched a limb removed ther, who had narrowly escaped capture
from an anesthetized patient. himself while traveling for business. Now
Some boys were also taught how to he seems quiet and subdued, sitting next
crucify those found guilty of disobeying to his father as he describes his time with
ISIS’s dictates, a punishment several ISIS, looking down at the floor of their
boys say happened almost weekly. The unfinished house and playing with his
dead were left rotting for days in public smartphone. He won’t give many details
squares or busy intersections, wearing about what else he saw or did as a fighter
a sign describing their crime— usually for the group. His father, a teacher who
refusal to convert. studied psychology, insists his son is fine
Amid these horrors, the boys were and doesn’t need counseling. But as the
offered grandiose metaphysical escape. boy listens to his older cousin Ashrawe
Their captors told them that their Yezidi describe fighting for ISIS, his far-off gaze in Syria, and he was badly wounded
families were destined for hell, but that suggests otherwise. in a mortar strike that killed two other
they were the righteous ones who would Ashrawe manned checkpoints in the boys in his unit. His leg still hurts from
inherit the caliphate. “ISIS told us about middle of some of the fiercest fighting embedded shrapnel. He also came
heaven, told us we were on a good path,” back with a young Yezidi wife given to
said ISIS escapee Shalal, now 15, his voice him by ISIS. But at 18, with no job, he
still high and childlike. He was 11 when struggles to take care of her, so he too
he was taken, along with his mother, relies on his uncle the psychologist, for
younger sister and brother, and indoctri- food and the shelter of the incomplete
nated in a military training camp. “It af- concrete apartment block they live in,
fected our minds,” he recalls. “Whenever its windows just blank holes open to the
we talked to our families, we would tell ‘MEN AND BOYS chilling February wind.
them what ISIS told us, that they needed The family is also dealing with
to become Muslims too.” WE ARE ONE LOT. another tragedy of the war. Shalal’s
As coalition bombing intensified mother had a child by an ISIS fighter
against ISIS, Shalal decided it was WOMEN AND GIRLS while in captivity. Shalal’s father had
time for his mother, sister and brother refused to take the child in, so she left
to escape the group’s self- declared ARE WORTHLESS.’ the infant at an orphanage in Mosul
capital, Raqqa. He reached his father by where other former ISIS children were
telephone back in Iraq, who arranged —S., a Yezidi captured by ISIS being sent, when she was rescued from
60 Time June 3–10, 2019
