Kirkuk: Thousands of Iraqi children of Islamic State group members are left on their own, their parents dead or imprisoned after the long and destructive war that brought down the militants’ rule.
They are often ostracized, tainted in the eyes of a broken society where many hate the extremist group for its atrocities. One family of six children lives alone, the children fending for themselves, unable to go home and traumatized by their experiences.
When the Sunni militant group took over a large chunk of Iraqi territory in a 2014 blitz, it massacred Shiite Muslims, Kurds, Christians, Yazidis and members of the police or military who fell into its hands. And it drove out others, often either destroying or giving away their homes. (AP)