@Matthew__Barber: 1) Perhaps the hardest encounter yet: Spoke last night to 11-year-old boy who watched his father, 2 uncles, & aunt shot in front of him.
@Matthew__Barber: 2) Little Ahmad’s family is not #Yazidi, but Shiite. There are very few Shi’i Kurds, but Ahmad’s uncle Ismail was the imam in #Sinjar city.
@Matthew__Barber: 3) In his young but clear voice, Ahmad described for me how his uncle rushed home from the mosque when the #IS attack began.
@Matthew__Barber: 4) Grabbing what belongings they could, they hurried to leave the city. They were several related families attempting to flee together.
@Matthew__Barber: 5) Up ahead, #IS vehicles intercepted them, suddenly blocking the road. Relatives believe local informants alerted IS of their departure.
@Matthew__Barber: 6) Armed and threatening, they ordered the men out of the cars. The family believed that as the Shi’i imam, Ismail was the main target.
@Matthew__Barber: 7) The #IS fighters made to seize Ismail, and the men felt that this was the moment of their last stand—overpower them or have throats cut.
@Matthew__Barber: 8) Ismail, Shakir (another of Ahmad’s uncles), and Mohammed (Ahmad’s father) were unarmed and tried to defend themselves barehanded.
@Matthew__Barber: 9) In the ensuing fisticuffs, Ismail wrested a gun away from a fighter, killed him & injured a second, before other fighters killed the men.
@Matthew__Barber: 10) IS fighters killed Ismail, Shakir, Mohammed, and Ahmad’s aunt, Sihan, who tried to pass a gun that was inside the car to her husband.
@Matthew__Barber: 11) At this point in the story, Ahmad—his tiny frame curled up on the mat across from me—lowered his forehead onto his knee and began to cry
@Matthew__Barber: 12) Comforting him, we moved on from the violence. No men survived the attack; what details Ahmad didn’t provide came from female survivors.
@Matthew__Barber: 13) The family had been on the run, hoping to flee the city for safety. They didn’t set out to attack #IS, but acted defensively.
@Matthew__Barber: 14) They claim they had no prior contact/conflict with #IS, but were targeted simply for being a religious family of local Shi’i leadership.
@Matthew__Barber: 15) After the killing, the #IS fighters stripped the women and children of all valuables, from gold earrings down to cellphones.
@Matthew__Barber: 16) The children & women (minus Ahmad’s aunt Sihan) were not killed, but couldn’t escape the mountain until the day before I met with them.
@Matthew__Barber: 17) Reunited w/ kin in Dohuk, the extended family—a refined bunch of teachers & professionals—now inhabit an unfinished, dirty cement shell.
@Matthew__Barber: 18) Around 100 people are now packed into the 3-story house w/out floors, electrical wiring, or running water. They have no place to bathe.
@Matthew__Barber: 19) They served me tea and gave me one of their few pillows to lean on. Traumatized, bereaved, and destitute, their hospitality yet lives on
@Matthew__Barber: 20) Ahmad, an 11-year-old Shiite boy from #Sinjar whose father, two uncles, and aunt were shot before his eyes:
@Matthew__Barber: 21) Ahmad, the oldest sibling of 5, with his sister, who also witnessed the shooting of their father.
@Matthew__Barber: 22) Ahmad smiles with his cousins in their new, austere environment:
It is too
