Relative of Assyrians Released By ISIS Speaks
Sabah Elijah with her husband. Three of the 22 hostages ISIS released are her relatives.
August 2015
Stockholm (AINA) — The Swedish Newspaper Lanstidningeninterviewed Sabah Elijah, who verfified the authenticity of the video which appeared this week on Youtube (AINA 2015-08-15) showing Assyrian men, women and children who were captured by ISIS in Syria appealing for help.
After seeing pictures of the 22 Assyrians which ISIS released on Tuesday, Ms. Elijah said “Three of them belong to my family.”
“They have lived in difficult conditions these six months,” she says. “They have been kept as slaves by the ISIS, men and women have lived apart. They have not been able to take care of their hygiene and they are full of lice. They have no received food every day either, but perhaps only every other day,” she continues.
ISIS attacked 35 Assyrian villages on the Khabur river in the Hasaka province of Syria on February 23, capturing 253 Assyrians in the attack. ISIS has since released 48 Assyrians, with 205 still being held.
According to Sabah Elijah the release of the 22 Assyrians is the result of hard work by the Bishop of the Assyrian Church of the East in Hasaka. Sabah Elijah’s relatives have now been transferred to Hasaka.
“My relatives now live with an aunt. But what happens next? They are old. What will they live on? They had everything before ISIS came. Now they have nothing.”
© Assyrian International News Agency.
