Seventeen Children Released From Daesh Captivity in Mosul

Five girls and twelve boys, who were held captive by militants in the western part of Mosul, were released as a result of the successful operation against the Daesh terrorists, Ali al Bayati, the head of the Turkmen Rescue Foundation in Iraq, told Sputnik.

The released children, aged from 5 to 13 years, are frightened and exhausted, according to doctors. They were taken as prisoners in 2014, among hundreds of captive Turkomans from areas of the city of Tal Afar in northwestern Iraq, some 63 kilometers west of Mosul.

"According to the information we have, terrorists continued to keep about 300 children and 600 women captured in the Turkomans settlements in the middle of 2014," Ali al Bayati said.

It is assumed that all these years, the children were kept in a hospital and a shelter for minors in the city of Mosul. Terrorists used them as human shields.

Ali al Bayati expressed his hope that the operation in Mosul will reveal places where terrorists keep the remaining abducted civilians, whether in Iraq, Syria or elsewhere.