Aust IS fighters raped, enslaved women
AAP
January 22, 2015, 8:27 pm
Australian jihadist Khaled Sharrouf. Picture: Facebook
Australian jihadists Khaled Sharrouf and Mohamed Elomar have been accused of enslaving and raping women from the Yazidi religious minority in northern Iraq.
Two women who say they escaped from the pair have accused the jihadists of purchasing women from a slave market and forcing them into marriage.
They said the Australians, who are fighting for the Islamic State group in Syria, bought them from a slave market after they were kidnapped in Iraq and taken deep into Syrian territory last year.
The women said the Australians held them captive along with thousands of others.
One of them told the ABC that Sharrouf, who has been convicted and jailed for his involvement in a terrorist plot in Australia, threatened to kill her.
"At night he was taking a girl downstairs, and when the girl returned she'd tell us, `he told me you have to marry me or else I will sell you, and if you say anything to my wife I will sell you or kill you'," she said.
It was also claimed that Sharrouf demanded they convert to Islam.
"He tried to ban us from crying and showing our sadness," the woman, Layla, said.
"He threatened to sell us if we did. He said, 'Why are you sad? Forget about your home and family. This is your home and we are your family now. Forget about your Gods, for good, because we have killed them all'."
Sharrouf's children were also accused of torturing the women.
Elomar was accused of raping or threatening to rape two Yazidi women.
"One of my friends was with us all the day but he was taking her by force at night," Layla said.
The second woman, Nazdar, said of a friend: "She told me, 'he said that I must marry him or else he is going to sell me'. And every day he was bringing people to his home offering to sell them my friend."
The ABC has obtained images which it says show Sharrouf at a shooting range along with a young woman who is possibly his eldest daughter.
Three boys said to be Sharrouf's sons are also seen in military fatigues, the youngest holding a submachine gun.
Sharrouf last year posted a photo on the internet of his young son holding up a severed head.
Layla and Nazdar have now taken refuge in northern Iraq.
