What happened to Yezidi boys taken by ISIS?

Three male Yezidi children who had been kidnapped by ISIS have reportedly been killed in battle while fighting for the extremist group, according to a well-placed source.

The alleged deaths underscore an overlooked aspect of ISIS’ capture of over 5,000 Kurdish Yezidi men, women and children since August - a horrific story that has focused mostly on the fate of the women and girls who were taken by ISIS fighters as sex slaves and servants.

The report of the killing of these child soldiers begs the question: what happened to the boys?


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KRG monitors Salafi mullahs to thwart ISIS influence

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is monitoring all Salafi clerics and their mosques in the region to assure they are not recruiting for the Islamic State, according to Mariwan Naqshbandi, an official at the Ministry of Religious Affairs.

The decision to observe the mosques and mullahs, as Salafi clerics are known, was taken after several prominent figures aligned themselves with ISIS and young people from their mosques turned up fighting for the extremists  in Syria, Naqshbandi said.

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New massacre of Kurdish Yezidis proves to be a hoax

Earlier this week, the news went around the world: 300, perhaps as many as 600, Kurdish Yezidis held in captivity by the Islamic State were slaughtered in their village near the jihadists’ self-proclaimed  capital of Mosul.

Even the BBC, usually known for checking its sources well, ran the story on Saturday. It put the Yezidis in Iraq back into the spotlight. Their plight is incredibly painful, with more than 3,500 of them believed to be still in the hands of ISIS.

But the story about the massacre soon proved to be a hoax.

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