ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Iraqi embassy in Ankara announced on Monday that it has returned a 12-year-old Iraqi boy, abducted by the Islamic State (ISIS) in 2014, to his family, according to a statement from the embassy, which added that the achievement follows more than two years of diplomatic efforts.
The boy, identified as Ali Ghazi Mohammed Jamil, was “abducted by the ISIS terrorist groups following the killing of his parents” and “found in Turkey in 2022,” the statement said. He was then “placed in a child care facility in Ankara under the supervision of Turkish authorities.”
The embassy added that it had “closely followed” the child’s case from the moment it received information, and that “security and legal coordination with the relevant Turkish authorities were initiated,” which “led to the verification of the child’s identity and the commencement of all necessary procedures for his return.”
The Iraqi diplomatic mission in Ankara also “arranged DNA testing, which confirmed his relationship with his guardian, his uncle Faisal Mohammed Jamil,” followed by “judicial and logistical procedures” to facilitate his handover and "ensure he would be placed in a safe and suitable environment."
The embassy said the achievement “is the result of joint cooperation” between Baghdad and Ankara, expressing gratitude to the Turkish authorities for “their cooperation and tireless efforts, which contributed to locating the child and completing the necessary legal and administrative procedures for his return to his family.”
The development comes as a Yazidi mother and her 11-year-old daughter were reunited with their family in the Yazidi heartland of Shingal (Sinjar) in late November, after spending more than 11 years in ISIS captivity.
She told Rudaw that she “stayed in Syria for three years” before being relocated to Turkey. “I have been in Turkey for nine years,” she said, adding that in mid-November, she was able to speak with her family, who “helped me and facilitated my rescue.”
In June 2014, ISIS launched a blitz offensive, seizing control of nearly one-third of Iraq’s territory, particularly in the northern and western regions, and declared the northern city of Mosul as the capital of their self-called caliphate spanning Iraq and Syria.
Between early 2014 and October 2015, at least 18,802 civilians were killed in Iraq, primarily by ISIS, while thousands more were abducted, according to a 2016 report by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
In August 2014, ISIS launched a brutal campaign against the Yazidi community in Shingal, killing an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 Yazidi men and older women, and abducting 6,000 to 7,000 women and girls for sexual slavery and human trafficking.
As of early August, around 2,590 Yazidis remain missing, according to the Office for Rescuing Abducted Yazidis. Hussein Qaidi, head of the office - which is affiliated with Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani - told Rudaw that most of the kidnapped Yazidis are believed to be held in Syria, many in camps housing suspected ISIS affiliates.