Children of Islamic State group live under a stigma in Iraq
A family of six lost children lives quietly in a small apartment among strangers in this northern Iraqi city. The “man of the house,” an 18-year-old, heads out each morning looking for day labor jobs to pay the rent. His 12-year-old sister acts as the mother, cooking meals, cleaning and caring for her young siblings. […]Hamza Hendawi, Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Maya Alleruzzo report for AP:
A family of six lost children lives quietly in a small apartment among strangers in this northern Iraqi city. The “man of the house,” an 18-year-old, heads out each morning looking for day labor jobs to pay the rent. His 12-year-old sister acts as the mother, cooking meals, cleaning and caring for her young siblings.
Their home village is less than an hour’s drive away, but they can’t go back — Shiite militiamen burned down their house because their father belonged to the Islamic State group. And they fear retaliation by their former neighbors, so deep is the anger at the militants who once ruled this area.
So the Suleiman children are left to fend for themselves. Their father is in prison. Their mother died years ago. They are traumatized by deaths of loved ones in the war and by their own family turmoil. In their temporary home, they lie low, worried their new neighbors will learn of their family’s IS connection.
