Eight months into the campaign to retake Mosul,
Iraqi forces now have ISIS surrounded in the Old City.
But the battle’s hardly over:
the fighters still have women and children—
and the United Nations says they’re using them as human shields.
But in the Libyan port city of Sirte—
which was the Islamic State’s main stronghold outside of Iraq and Syria—
a generation of widows and orphans speak to the brutality to come.
Seb Walker reports.
— These women are among dozens of so-called “ISIS brides,”
held captive by the terror group during their final days inside Sirte.
— They’re under investigation by Libyan authorities,
and are being held inside an air force base on the outskirts of Misrata.
— They all hail from different countries,
and tell different stories about how they ended up there.
Some of the women claim they simply followed their husbands to Libya,
with no knowledge they would end up joining ISIS.
— But others, like 18-year-old Ala’a um Omair,
appear to have more deliberate ties to ISIS.
— Ala’a left Egypt to live under a stricter form of Islam with her aunt in Sirte,
and there she was married to an ISIS fighter.
She says she tried to leave, but ISIS shot at her.
— Whatever their reasons for being in Sirte,
these women that when ISIS started to lose its grip on the city,
they were used as collateral to slow down Libyan forces.
— I mean, what do you tell your children about their fathers?
— Nuseiba um Yaqeen’s children now live with her in-laws in Tripoli.
But some women’s children live in the prison with them.
Across town, there’s a group of children with no parents at all—
all of them fathered by ISIS fighters, some as young as 6-months-old.
— Hello, Mariam!
— Libya’s Red Crescent wasn’t set up to take charge of these children,
but they converted their headquarters into a makeshift orphanage
after these girls and boys were rescued from Sirte.
— What happened to her foot?
— Is it painful for you?
— Medical staff her say when these 32 children arrived,
many of them suffered from disease or dehydration, broken bones or burns.
But it’s their mental health that’s the biggest concern.
— Abdessalam?
And your brother?
— Bilal.
Can you remember what happened?
— How long have you been in this place?
— Abdessalam and Bilal were rescued from the collapsed house
during the operation to retake Sirte,
along with 5-year-old Mohammed,
who lost his arm after it was crushed in the collapse.
When Mohammed arrived,
he needed 24-hour care and psychological treatment.
He wouldn’t speak for weeks, and still barely utters a word.
But his bond with Abdessalam is clear.
The boys take care of each other—
a new family to replace the ones they lost.
— Do you remember your father? Do you miss him?
— When is the last time that you saw your parents?
How do people here feel about them?
I mean, are these children stigmatized because they are children of ISIS?
— What does the future hold for them?
— These children have no documents or identification—
a stateless generation founded under the caliphate.
Now, with nowhere to go.