Four children who were among 153 Kurdish boys captured and held hostage by the Islamic State in May shared with the Human Rights Watch their experiences of torture and abuse by the militants.
The children were forced to memorize verses from the Quran and watch footage of the Islamic State militants attacking and beheading people. If they misbehaved, tried to escape, or failed to do well in mandatory religious lessons, they were beaten.
One of the boys, 15 years old, said that guards beat them on their hands, back, and the soles of their feet with electrical cables.
"Those who didn't conform to the program were beaten," another 16-year-old boy told Human Rights Watch. "They beat us with a green hose or a thick cable with a wire running through it. They also beat the soles of our feet. The tire was used less often. I was once put inside the tire and beaten. They sometimes found excuses to beat us for no reason. The Syrian guards were the worst and beat us the worst."
"When some boys tried to escape, the treatment got worse and we were all punished and given less food," the 16-year-old added.
The militants even threatened to hurt some of the children's families, especially those whose families were a part of the YPG (People's Protection Units), a Kurdish armed force.
"It was really those whose families were close to the YPG who suffered the most," said the 15-year-old. "[The Islamic State] told them to give them the addresses of their families, cousins, and uncles, saying, "When we go to Kobani we will get them and cut them up.' They saw the YPG as kafir [unbelievers]."
The children were abducted when they were going home after exams in Aleppo. Though the initial number of those abducted was 250, the Islamic State released 100 girls first, "within a few hours," according to the Human Rights Watch. The boys that were left were held in captivity for about four months, and were released in groups between June and October, the last group of which was released on October 29. The Human Rights Watch reports that some of them were released in exchange for Islamic State soldiers that were captured by the YPG.
The Islamic State has been sieging Kobani, a Syrian town located near the border of Turkey, for over six weeks, according to Bloomberg. However, recent reports say that efforts to defend Kobani have been increasing, with the Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga's help, and the U.S.-led coalition's efforts.
