NEWS CENTER – Eleven years after the ISIS attack on Shengal, the fate of five members of the Xelef family remains unknown. Berzan and Faris Xelef, two brothers who were abducted as children and forced to hide their faith to survive, have spoken out about the horrors they endured during four years of ISIS captivity.

 

The August 3, 2014, ISIS offensive against the Êzidî (Yazidi) community in Shengal, Iraq, is remembered as the 74th genocide, or "Ferman", in Êzidî history. Thousands were killed, and thousands more, mostly women and children, were abducted.

 

Among those captured was the Xelef family from Qapûsî village near Tilazer. Seven family members were taken: mother Kinê, father Îdo, and five children, Rênas, Rena, Fîraz, Berzan, and Faris. Only Berzan and Faris were eventually rescued after four years of captivity. The whereabouts of the others remain unknown.

 

‘THEY TOOK MY HAND BECAUSE I WOULDN’T CONVERT’

 

Berzan Xelef, now 21, was 11 years old when he was kidnapped. He was rescued in 2018 during a military operation in Deir ez-Zor. His younger brother Faris, taken at age 7, was freed in 2019 from the notorious al-Hol camp.

 

Berzan recounted how the family was separated: “We hid in the trees for a month. When ISIS caught us, they took us to Kocho, where severed heads and limbs were lying on the ground. My father and many other men were loaded onto trucks and never returned.”

 

He recalled being forcibly taught the Qur’an and punished for not performing Islamic rituals: “They called us infidels and tortured us. Later, we were transferred to Raqqa, locked in a house, and beaten for not memorizing religious texts. Eventually, they took us to the desert for weapons training.”

 

Berzan was sent to the village of Cefra, where he was wounded in an airstrike. After refusing to convert to Islam, he was drugged and woke up to find his right hand amputated. “I was in unbearable pain. My leg still hasn’t fully healed. I try to live without a hand,” he said.

 

‘I WAS NEVER A CHILD AGAIN’

 

“I can never forget the day the guerrillas liberated us,” Berzan said. “It felt like rebirth. They were our saviors.” After his rescue, he was taken to Hesekê and later reunited with surviving relatives. "I still don’t know what happened to my mother, father, and siblings. My longing for them is indescribable. I was never a child again.”

 

‘I HID MY IDENTITY TO STAY ALIVE’

 

Faris Xelef, now 18, spent two years locked in a house in Mosul, receiving religious and military training. He was later transferred to Syria. “I kept trying to escape, but every attempt ended in torture,” he said.

 

At one point, Faris was taken in by a family from Tel Afar, who later sent him to al-Hol Camp. “Their son mistreated me. I never said I was Êzidî because they warned us: ‘If they find out, they’ll kill you.’ Even when the SDF liberated us, I kept it hidden.”

 

After his rescue, he was brought to an Êzidî shelter in Hesekê and later returned to Shengal. “What haunted me most were the dead bodies and the torture. I was a child, surrounded by corpses, severed limbs. One boy had nails driven into his leg. I couldn’t speak my mother tongue for five years. I only knew Arabic. I had to relearn Kurdish.” 

 

MA / Zeynep Durgut