The posting in Arabic appeared on an encrypted conversation along with ads for kittens, weapons and tactical gear.
It was shared with The Associated Press by an activist with the minority Yazidi community, whose women and children are being held as sex slaves by the extremists. While the Islamic State group is losing territory in its self-styled caliphate, it is tightening its grip on the estimated 3, women and girls held as sex slaves.
The fighters are assassinating smugglers who rescue the captives, just as funds to buy the women out of slavery are drying up. The thousands of Yazidi women and children were taken prisoner in August , when IS fighters overran their villages in northern Iraq with the aim to eliminate the Kurdish-speaking minority because of its ancient faith.
Since then, Arab and Kurdish smugglers managed to free an average of people a month. But by May, an IS crackdown reduced those numbers to just 39 in the last six weeks, according to figures provided by the Kurdistan regional government. Mirza Danai, founder of the German-Iraqi aid organization Luftbrucke Irak, said in the last two or three months, escape has become more difficult and dangerous. Lamiya Aji Bashar tried to flee four times before finally escaping in March, racing to government-controlled territory with Islamic State group fighters in pursuit.
A land mine exploded, killing her companions, 8-year-old Almas and Katherine, She never learned their last names. The explosion left Lamiya blind in her right eye, her face scarred by melted skin.
