The boys’ homecoming should have been a moment of joy. But those who make it back from Islamic State’s clutches return to ravaged communities, and families ill-equipped to heal the scars of their time with the extremists.
The Aoun brothers stand as relatives swarm around them during their homecoming celebration.
It was 2014 when Islamic State mounted its genocidal rampage against the religious minorities who had long made Tall Afar and the bucolic plains of northwestern Iraq their home. The militants slaughtered thousands of Yazidis and Shiite Turkmens, groups they considered infidels. But they also kidnapped their children, seeking to indoctrinate them and press them into service as future sex slaves or child soldiers.That these boys had escaped five years later was little short of a miracle.
But the boys didn’t move. They didn’t eat. They didn’t smile. They didn’t even look up from the floor. Around them, the adults looked helpless, their eyes filling with tears. One of the men came forward and scooped Ahmad in his arms, trying to get any response. Finally, two women peeled them off their chairs and took them inside.
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