Summary
When 9-year-old Murad got the chance to flee from Daesh (ISIS) – the group that repeatedly raped his mother and slaughtered or enslaved thousands from his Yazidi minority – he hesitated.
The training often leaves them scarred, even after returning home.
Most of the time Murad's mother managed to stay with her two sons as Daesh shuffled them around cities and towns in its "caliphate" spanning the borders of Iraq and Syria.
Twenty-five children who escaped from Daesh training camps have since passed through Qadiya, 10 kilometers south of the Turkish border, but only six remain, they said.
After three nights in the town of Ain al-Arab, known in Kurdish as Kobani, on the Turkish border, they made their way to Iraqi Kurdistan.
For boys who have reached relative safety, new burdens await them and their families. Most Yazidis have had to spend small fortunes on smugglers' costs to rescue loved ones – Murad's family raised $24,000 to get the three home.
Murad's mother said she could tell her boys had been traumatized by the ordeal.
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