The Horror Created by ISIS in Syria and Iraq

Kurds and Americans rescued 70 Iraqis at Hawija. They were immensely more lucky than captured US humanitarian aid worker Kayla Mueller, 26, who was repeatedly raped by ISIS leader al-Baghdadi before her death in an airstrike in February. The repeated sexual assaults were confirmed to her parents by the US government. ~~~~~ The details of Meuller's ordeal came from US debriefings of two Yazidi girls, age 16 and 18, who were also held as sex slaves with Mueller. The systematic repeated rape of hundreds of Yazidi women and girls has become a religious tenet of ISIS' radical Islam. New York Times interviews with 21 women and girls who recently escaped ISIS, as well as an NYT review of ISIS official communications, show how rape and slavery have been enshrined by ISIS. ~~~~~ Breitbart News reported in August that American hostage James Foley, who was beheaded by British killer "Jihadi John," was singled out for the harshest treatment by his ISIS captors after they found pictures of his brother who serves in the US Air Force on his laptop computer, according to other prisoners. He was regularly the victim of mock executions, including once being "crucified against a wall," said French journalist Didier François, who has told media ISIS gave Foley rougher treatment than the rest of them. François called Foley "one of the pillars of the group, who never cracked even under the most difficult conditions. He was an extraordinary guy, an extremely nice companion in detention, very solid." François said the hostages' treatment was always "rough and sometimes violent." A second French hostage, Nicolas Henin, with Foley in Syria for seven months, including a week when they were handcuffed together, told BBC Foley was seen as "some kind of scapegoat....Being an American, he was probably more targeted." Henin was later released, as was François. ~~~~~ A fearful ISIS defector named “Saleh" told Sky News ISIS keeps their hostages docile in beheading videos by rehearsing many times. The hostages are told they aren’t going to be killed. Saleh, a translator, was hired by ISIS to interrogate hostages. ~~~~~ The Daily Mail reported that ISIS uses the same torture methods used by the Syrian al-Assad government. In fact, ISIS uses the brutal techniques once used on them, including being hung for days by their wrists or upside down tied to chairs. Rebels in Raqqa described torture by ISIS using the 'shabeh' (ghost). The victims' arms are tied behind their backs using handcuffs - which are then used to hoist the body into the air, putting extreme pressure on the shoulder sockets. One man told the Daily Mail he was given the 'shabeh' every four days for four months until his arms dislodged from their sockets. ~~~~~ NBC News reported in August about ISIS treatment of young boys. ISIS tortured and then chopped off Mohammed's right hand and left foot two weeks ago, after he refused to become a child soldier. The Syrian boy, 14, uses a wheelchair in the apartment where he lives in Turkey - his mother smuggled him there from Syria - with his brother and a friend of the family who is his nurse. Ahmed, 16, another boy from the same part of Syria as Mohammed, says ISIS coerced him into fighting with a mix of threats and false promises, until he escaped. Both boys had been with rebel Free Syria Army groups fighting al-Assad forces and were captured when ISIS overran their region. Interviews by NBC News with the boys, their guardians, Syrian rebels and a former ISIS commander who defected, reveal a disturbing ISIS strategy to recruit and deploy child soldiers, brainwashing them to be suicide bombers or carry out terrorist attacks in the Middle East and abroad, and brutalizing those who refuse to cooperate. "They fool children with money," Mohammed said. "They give a boy some money or a bicycle, and after two days they take him in a car to bomb himself. They target children...because children are unaware of anything in this life." ~~~~~ Dear readers, this is the horror of existence today under ISIS in Syria and Iraq. Can Europe be the answer? Tomorrow...