A pregnant 15-year-old American girl says she was coerced into joining ISIS in Syria by her radicalized father who made her marry a miltant.
The young girl, who is six months pregnant with the ISIS fighter’s child, spoke to CBS News after escaping ISIS-held areas near the northern Syrian town of Raqqa.
She says that she was forcibly brought to Syria by her father.
‘I’m from Kansas. I’ve been in Syria for five years,’ she said.
‘My father, of course, didn’t tell us that we were coming to Syria.’
A 15-year-old American girl says she was coerced into joining ISIS in Syria by her radicalized father. An ISIS fighter is seen in the above 2014 file photo carrying a flag in Raqqa, Syria
‘When it was time to get out of the car, and cross the border, he was like “you’re going to Syria,” and, yeah, it was a really big shock.’
Her identity has not been released by the media due to her being a minor.
She says that her father was killed and that she was left to fend for herself.
A devout Muslim, she says she hated being in ISIS-held areas.
‘We were prisoners. We were just quiet. Shut up, sit down you’re in the house, you have nothing to say,” she said.
‘Be glad your head isn’t chopped off.’
She says she misses her old life back in Kansas. She also believes that her mother is alive and well in the United States.
‘Hi Mom, if you see this video, please contact me,’ she said.
She says she is looking forward to returning home.
‘There’s a restaurant called Texas Roadhouse, they have steak there,’ she said.
Having lived in a gruesome war zone for the last five years, the 15-year-old girl has seen more than others her age.
‘When you walk outside there’s intestines on the street. There’s a head cut off from the shrapnel. There’s a leg,’ she said.
The young girl said that the father of her unborn child is dead. He died in an airstrike.
Nonetheless, she is looking forward to motherhood.
‘I still have hope, hope to go to school, hope to be a normal person, hope to be a mother to my child,’ she said.
ISIS fighters in Raqqa are expected to fight to the death, but some local militants have surrendered recently as US-backed forces close in on their last strongholds. Raqqa is seen above on September 21, 2017
ISIS fighters in Raqqa are expected to fight to the death, but some local militants have surrendered recently as US-backed forces close in on their last strongholds, a US coalition spokesman said on Wednesday.
Colonel Ryan Dillon said officials in the Raqqa Civil Council, which is to govern the city after ISIS has been driven out, were working to negotiate the safe passage of thousands of civilians being held hostage.
But the coalition would not support any negotiated withdrawal of fighters, he said.
‘The coalition would not be party to a negotiated settlement. (But) we’re jumping ahead of anything that’s being discussed right now … as (the council) try to get civilians out,’ he told Reuters by phone.
Up to 400 militants are believed to remain in a small part of Raqqa surrounded by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias, he said.
‘The foreign fighters (in IS), we fully expect them to fight till the end – there’s a hard core of (foreign) fighters.
‘But we have seen a rate of four to five ISIS fighters surrendering a week, including emirs – local leaders within Raqqa – over the past month,’ Dillon said, using another acronym for Islamic State.
The SDF said on Sunday it expected Raqqa’s capture to be announced within days.
ISIS took over the city in 2014 as it seized swathes of Syria and Iraq.
Raqqa served as the group’s de facto Syrian capital, from where ISIS plotted deadly attacks abroad.