An Iraqi family's escape under fire 0
People fleeing IS rebels in Aziza’s family (purple shirt) are taking refuge in an abandoned building.
Two days after being on the flight with Aziza, the CNN reporter followed the girls and some family members to the third floor of an abandoned building in Zakho, Iraq, that is now a temporary shelter
Inside, the girls, their brothers and their 16-year-old cousin huddled in a corner with little belongings.
`We have no food. No water. We don’t sleep. Very, very poor,` said Aziza’s older brother, Kareem.
The Hamid children, like many Yazidis, began falling into this situation more than a week ago, when they fled to the mountains to avoid members of the Islamic State (IS) organization sweeping through the town.
US President Barack Obama ordered air strikes against the rebels last week, to protect the Yazidi people and those fleeing from IS.
The number of Yazidis on the mountain was once thought to be in the tens of thousands but is now in the `several thousand`, Brett McGurk, US deputy assistant secretary of state, said yesterday.
Part of the reason for the decrease in the number of people trapped is thanks to airstrikes and humanitarian aid, as well as helicopter evacuations by the Iraqi government, Mr. McGurk added.
The Yazidi are one of the oldest and smallest religious minorities in the world.
An Iraqi family’s escape from rebel guns
When IS captured Sinjar, the Yazidi homeland, Hamid’s family was forced to flee.
`I’m very happy that we’re alive, but I’m very sad and worried about my father,` said her older sister Dunya, 17 years old.
`We all tried our best to convince father but he refused to leave the house,` said Aziza’s older brother, Thabed Hamid.
Hamid’s family had not yet had time to go far when they encountered IS gunmen.
`I jumped out of the car and jumped off the bridge because I was so scared of IS,` Aziza said.
From there, the children found their way up the mountain, in the sweltering heat of the Iraqi summer.
`If we can find a tree to sit and rest under the shade, we are lucky,` Dunya said.
It was long days before the boys and girls learned their father’s fate.
