As forces advance towards Raqqa, families hope for return of abducted relatives

Hanifa Abbas impatiently follows the news about the Raqqa operation, hoping to see her abducted relatives again.

DOHUK, Kurdistan Region— The families of those kidnapped by the Islamic State (ISIS) militants anxiously wait and hope for the safe return of their loved ones after US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) launched a broad offensive to retake the key ISIS bastion of Raqqa where most of the abducted Yezidis have been taken.

Many of the restless families say that their kidnapped relatives are still safe in Raqqa and hope the operation would finally bring them back to their families.

“All my three younger sisters are still alive,” says Hanifa Abbas, a Yezidi woman who managed to escape ISIS captivity in Syria last year. Her relatives, including an 11-year-old sister, were abducted in their hometown of Shingal in Iraqi Kurdistan two years ago.

Hanifa says that her sisters have contacted her over the past days to inform her of their safety and whereabouts.

Despite being in confinement, many of the abducted Yezidis manage to contact their families in the Kurdistan Region often hoping to be released in return for ransoms paid by their families or the Kurdish government.

Though an accurate data about the number of the kidnapped Yezidis has been increasingly impossible to produce, according to one government office 2,587 people have been rescued since 2014, often after delivered ransoms to local mediators.

According to the office of Yezidi Affairs in Kurdistan region, some 3,700 Yezidis are still in ISIS captivity.

“We were sold and bought by various individuals who were somehow affiliated with the Daesh,” says Hanifa using an Arabic acronym for the militant group. “My younger sister told me today that she was sold four times over the past days,” she says.

The operation to recapture Raqqa, which has been called ISIS self-proclaimed capital since 2013, started on Tuesday with the SDF forces pushing back militants from several villages surrounding the city.

Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) are part of the joint operation that is supported by the US airpower and a 300-strong US army troop.

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