Watch the incredible moment women and children were freed from ISIS

14 July 2015

Four million women live under the rule of the Islamic State - the world’s most brutal regime for women.

Channel 4 Dispatches exclusively filmed with an underground network who are trying to save those it can from ISIS held areas. 

In this incredible video, we witness 34 people – mainly women and children - escaping from ISIS. 

 

Background

Sinjar mountain, north Iraq is a frontier with the Islamic State. 

Last August, it was the target of an ISIS attack. Hundreds were killed and ISIS also captured 3,000 Yazidi women and young girls alive.

The attack was the largest single kidnap of women this century.

The women were carried off into the Islamic State.

ISIS created prisons for captured Yazidi women and forced many to convert to Islam, on pain of death.

The families of the abducted women fled east.   They now live in vast camps, 100 miles from their homes.

Khaleel is a local lawyer, who’s has spoken to women who have managed to escape. 

“Based on the information I have, I can say 80% were raped”, he says.  

 

The Escape

Khaleel has put together a team to get the women back.

So far, Khaleel network have only saved small groups of women, but Channel 4 Dispatches filmed his team’s biggest rescue ever attempted.

The fate of the 34 Yazidis hangs in the balance. The escapees have to walk across miles of territory patrolled by ISIS fighters.

The 34 have spent eight  months in the Islamic State.  They’ve had family members killed and have been kept as slaves.

They’ve been walking for two days with little food or water. 

The film captures the moment they are  free.

As the escapees are carried to safety, Khaleel’s  contact turns around and walks back into the Islamic State.

Six weeks after this footage was taken, Khaleel received reports of a new massacre in the town where many of the escapees were held.

600 were reported killed - and, again, hundreds of women were carried deeper into ISIS territory.

These 34 were some of the last to escape.

 

Escape From ISIS – a Channel 4 Dispatches special airs Wednesday 15th July at 10pm