Australian jihadists Khaled Sharrouf and Mohamed Elomar accused of enslaving Yazidi women in Islamic State stronghold

By Middle East correspondent Matt Brown and Suzanne Dredge

Notorious Australian jihadists Khaled Sharrouf and Mohamed Elomar have been accused of enslaving women from the Yazidi religious minority in northern Iraq.

The ABC interviewed four of the women who identified Sharrouf and Elomar as their captors.

Both men have been posting messages on social media chronicling extremist behaviour while they fight for the Islamic State (IS) militia.

However, this is the first witness testimony placing them in the Islamic State's de facto capital Raqqa.

Being in Raqqa is a crime under Australian law.

Video Link: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-01-22/australian-islamic-state-fighters-accused-of/6036660

The women said the Australians held them captive after they were kidnapped in Iraq and taken deep into Syrian territory last year.

The women have now taken refuge in northern Iraq, living in refugee tents, cabins and concrete homes amidst a freezing winter.

To reach the women, the ABC travelled west from the Kurdish city of Erbil to within 35 kilometres of the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul, then north to the rugged mountains where Iraq, Syria and Turkey meet.

Because the women are still terrified of the Australians they have asked to have their names changed for publication.


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Australian jihadists Khaled Sharrouf and Mohamed Elomar accused of enslaving Yazidi women in Islamic State stronghold
Exclusive by Middle East correspondent Matt Brown and Suzanne Dredge

Updated about an hour agoThu 22 Jan 2015, 10:57pm

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Video: Australian jihadists accused of enslaving Yazidi women (7.30)
Photo: Nazdar told the ABC she was held captive by Mohamed Elomar (ABC News)
Related Story: Australian Muslim groups condemn use of slaves
Related Story: Australians fighting with Islamic State implicated in sexual slavery
Map: Syrian Arab Republic

Notorious Australian jihadists Khaled Sharrouf and Mohamed Elomar have been accused of enslaving women from the Yazidi religious minority in northern Iraq.

The ABC interviewed four of the women who identified Sharrouf and Elomar as their captors.

Both men have been posting messages on social media chronicling extremist behaviour while they fight for the Islamic State (IS) militia.

Media player: "Space" to play, "M" to mute, "left" and "right" to seek.
Audio: Women describe enslavement by Australian jihadists in Iraq (PM)

However, this is the first witness testimony placing them in the Islamic State's de facto capital Raqqa.

Being in Raqqa is a crime under Australian law.

The women said the Australians held them captive after they were kidnapped in Iraq and taken deep into Syrian territory last year.

The women have now taken refuge in northern Iraq, living in refugee tents, cabins and concrete homes amidst a freezing winter.

To reach the women, the ABC travelled west from the Kurdish city of Erbil to within 35 kilometres of the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul, then north to the rugged mountains where Iraq, Syria and Turkey meet.

Because the women are still terrified of the Australians they have asked to have their names changed for publication.
LtoR Khaled Sharrouf and Mohamed Elomar Photo: LtoR Khaled Sharrouf and Mohamed Elomar, date of photos unknown. (ABC News/Facebook)

As the rain beat down on her thin refugee tent, Ghazala peered intently at a series of mugshots of Australian Islamic State fighters.

She was looking for the man she knew as Abu Zarqawi, a man who had kept her and six other Yazidi women captive in Syria for two months.

The moment she saw Sharrouf her finger shot out to point at his face.

"We were so afraid they would force us to marry them," she said.

"And when they were going to battle they'd take knives and other tools to cut off the heads of those they fight."

Three other Yazidi women identified Sharrouf from his mug shot.

During their time in captivity they had learned his age, the fact that he had served time in prison, and that he suffered a mental illness.
Children absorbing the horror that surrounds them

Sharrouf is notorious for his online posts, including images of his son holding a severed head and a submachine gun.

As well as cooking and cleaning for his family, the Yazidi women looked after his five children.

And they warned the barbarity the children had witnessed was being absorbed.

"His children were treating us badly," Ghazala said.

"They had knives and cell phones saying that they will take videos while cutting off our heads because we follow a different religion."

The ABC obtained additional images that also gave a disturbing glimpse into the lives of Sharrouf's family.

In one photo Sharrouf was pictured at a shooting range along with a young woman who is possibly his eldest daughter.

Sharrouf's three boys can be seen laughing together in military fatigues.

In one picture, the eldest boy sits on the floor with his hand on an assault rifle, while another rifle is propped next to him on the wall.

In another, the youngest holds a submachine gun.

Sharrouf caused outrage when he posted a similar image online last year. But the ABC has obtained several more, showing the child posing and aiming the gun at the camera.

Sharrouf told women: 'We have killed your gods'

When Islamic State fighters swept across northern Iraq last year they targeted the Yazidis because they believe the Yazidis are infidels who must convert or die.

The four women interviewed by the ABC were captured along with thousands of others.

Many of their men were killed or taken hostage. Then the women were taken to Raqqa and traded as slaves.

One of the women, Layla, said Sharrouf demanded they convert to Islam.

"He tried to ban us from crying and showing our sadness," she said.

"He threatened to sell us if we did. He said, 'Why are you sad? Forget about your home and family. This is your home and we are your family now. Forget about your gods, for good, because we have killed them all'."

Two of the women identified Elomar as their captor. While he had used the pseudonym Abu Hafs, the women learned his real first and second name and the fact that his wife had been arrested before she could leave Australia to join him.

They said he lived on the first floor of the two-storey building occupied by Sharrouf and his family.

And they accused Elomar of taking one of their friends away and either raping her or threatening to rape her.

"One of my friends was with us all the day but he was taking her by force at night," Layla said.

Another woman, Nazdar, said of her friend: "She told me, 'he said that I must marry him or else he is going to sell me'. And every day he was bringing people to his home offering to sell them my friend."

The allegation could not be tested. The issue is clouded in secrecy, fear and shame.

The forced marriage and rape of Yazidi women has been widely reported. But, while the four women said they believed it happened to two friends, none said it had happened to them.

All four gave consistent, first-hand accounts of servitude and demands they renounce their culture and religion. And the threat of being forced to marry or sold to other jihadists was made often.

As well as being brutal jihadists, Sharrouf and Elomar now stand accused of being involved in an organised attempt to wipe out a people.