I was an ISIS slave – I saw Shamima Begum at camp where she learnt how to use suicide belts & guns, she’ll never change

AN ISIS slave has told how she saw Shamima Begum at a terrorist training camp where she would have been taught how to use suicide belts and guns.

Dila – which is not her real name – is a member of the Yazidi people who were subjected to genocide by ISIS, with an estimated 5,000 murdered and more than 10,000 kidnapped. She was kept as a slave by ISIS for seven years – being sold, raped and abused after she was snatched aged just 13.

The now 20-year-old says she is 100 per cent certain she saw Begum at the terrorist training camp in Deir ez-Zor, Syria. The former slave – whose identity needs to be protected as she still has seven family members missing, likely enslaved by ISIS – gave her testimony to squaddie turned documentarian Alan Duncan.

Dila positively identified Begum as having been taking part in classes at a terrorist training camp, which was known as the “Students of Sharia”. She would have been handling weapons – such as shotguns and M16 assault rifles – and being trained on how to use suicide belts. The makeshift “school” was set-up as ISIS fled from Western-backed forces during the counteroffensive in Syria.

Dila said the group would be split into “classes” for weapons training – being taught on how shoot and handle guns – before all coming back together for lectures on Sharia. And that is where she spotted Begum.

She was outraged when Duncan showed her a “cover-girl” picture of Begum wearing a sleeveless top and a baseball cap.

“It is fake by Begum. Living with ISIS women and ISIS in general I understand how they think, how loyal they are to their Sharia ideas,” Dila said in an exclusive interview shared with The Sun Online.  “They are faking facts, women of ISIS will never change, they still believe in what they believe.  Many of them still in the camps believe ISIS will rise again.”

Dila had vivid memories of Begum as she appeared to be friendly with a German ISIS bride she named as “Um-Herrera”. The bride, who was married to another German ISIS fighter, was well known as she was one of the slavers who would sell Yazidis.

And one of the people she sold was Dila’s sister, 14 – who remains missing to this day. At least 2,700 Yazidi women and children remain missing – many of them likely still held by ISIS.

“I assumed they were close friends because of the way they talked to each other,” said Dila. Despite being a Yazidi, Dila was attending the classes as she attempted to convince them she was a true-believer. Yazidi people were often subject to forced conversions,

The young woman was held as a slave – but was then moved to live in the cult’s capital of Raqqa in September 2015.

Western-backed offensives began to push the cult back, and eventually Dila was moved to Deir ez-Zor, which is about 80 miles southeast of Raqqa. Begum is also reported to have also moved from Raqqa to Deir ez-Ezor as the siege of the ISIS capital intensified, so her and Dila’s movements appear to match up.

It is around this time as well – after the birth of her first child – Begum is reported to have joined ISIS’s brutal “morality police”. During this period Begum is alleged to have carried a Kalashnikov assault rifle and stitched suicide bombs into vests – once again matching up with the account of her training from Dila.

“They (ISIS women) are ticking time bombs, many of them think they have lost the battle but not the war,” Duncan told The Sun Online. “There is no doubt in my mind many of them are a danger to this country, yet there is a lack of will to exact justice for the victims…A lot of people in the UK are screaming about Begum’s rights – but why are they not screaming about the rights of the Yazidis? With the way things are – even if she gets back to the UK – she will never serve a day in prison.”

Duncan formerly served with the Queen’s Own Highlanders and Royal Irish Regiment. He then fought alongside the Kurdish Peshmergas as a sniper to battle against ISIS. And after the war was over, he decided to use his camera as his new weapon in exposing the depravity of the jihadi cult’s crimes.

Zemfira Dlovani, a lawyer and the chairwoman of the Central Council of Yazidis, told The Sun Online that the UK needs to be doing more to tackle returning ISIS fighters – especially the women. She warned the use of the term “bride” often inherently downplays the involvements of the female fighters. “The role of the woman was not just being a ‘bride’ – but they were killing people, having slaves and beating people,” Ms Dlovani told The Sun Online. “They did everything the men did.”

And she said it is not just about justice for the Yazidi people – but also about keeping people safe from any potential future terrorist attacks.