Bashiqa, Iraq: The young boy held his head low, his lip quivering as he spoke.
“My father and two of my brothers were kidnapped by Daesh [the Islamic State group],” he told SBS at Imam Ali Reza Shrine in Tel Khazer village, a short drive from Mosul.
“They stayed behind in Tal Afar in order to protect our house but Daesh came and kidnapped them.”
The northern Iraqi city of Tal Afar, 50km west of Mosul, fell into the hands of jihadists after a two-day battle with security forces in mid June.
The ethnic minority Shia Turkmen were forced to flee after Islamic State fighters kidnapped men and pillaged homes and places of worship.
The young boy, who didn’t want to be named for security reasons, said he fled to the shrine with his mother and sister 10 days ago.
“There are about 80 people that were kidnapped in Tal Afar,” he said.
“My family’s situation is unknown. We haven’t heard anything about them yet.
“There is nothing to do here. All I have left is thinking about the destiny of my brothers and father and if they will come back.”
According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), since Mosul was captured on June 10, jihadists have kidnapped at least 200 Turkmen, Shabaks and Yazidi, killing at least 11.
But those figures are outdated after thousands of people from the Yazidi community fled their homes a few days ago as they sought to escape an IS advance in Sinjar, in the country’s north. While many escaped to safer ground, about 50,000 are trapped in the mountains facing dire water and food shortages.
“Being a Turkman, a Shabak, a Yazidi or a Christian in ISIS territory can cost you your livelihood, your liberty, or even your life,” Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of the Middle East division of HRW, said.
A woman from al-Shamsiyat, a small village south of Mosul, told SBS she fled last week after the Islamic State shot at her house.
“Since the fall of Saddam Hussein and his regime in 2003, more Sunnis and Arabs had arrived in my town to buy land but it had always traditionally been Shia who lived there,” she said.
“Daesh walked from house to house and marked every Shia house with an X. They said to us: ‘if you don’t leave, then we’ll kill you’.”
The woman, who again didn’t want to be named for security reasons, said what happened was comparable to expulsion of Christians from Mosul.
“The Sunnis in the area supported Daesh and told them who the Shias were in the village,” she said.
“When we left, Daesh even took my small handbag. We left with just our clothes in a taxi because they stole our car. At first I tried to talk to them, but they told me they would get rid of me.”
The family, along with 221 others, took refuge at this picturesque shrine that houses and feeds everyone with support from aid organisations.
But the religious site is overwhelmed with the number of people who’ve fled here that people have had to set up tents in the sweltering heat outside the shrine.
“We were all living in one room here but the other night we were moved into a tent because the children have very bad diarrhea. They’re very sick and tired,” the woman said.
“Financially, we have zero but there are no shortcomings from what we get from the people here.”
Another man from Tal Afar said he fled to the shrine with his family of 11 and were all sleeping in one room.
“We don’t know our future. Maybe we can return, maybe we can’t,” he said.
“We came here with just the clothes on our backs. We don’t have our passports or anything.”
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