Murad Ismail and Sinjar Crisis Group

: Those who have fled or been rescued — some 500 — are deeply traumatized, leading lives of desperation in bleak conditions in northern Iraq, according to Toronto Star. They have panic attacks on a daily basis, says Murad Ismail, one of the leaders of the U.S.-based Sinjar Crisis Group, which is trying to rescue the women and obtain aid for the survivors. Far from the utopian paradise the militants promise their western recruits, those who risk their lives to flee describe their imprisonment as the lowest circle of hell. A lot of them have been sexually, mentally and physically assaulted. He is calling on Canada and the U.S. to send aid but also give them asylum as refugees. Ismail, who recently returned from Iraqi Kurdistan, where most of the escaped girls and women are seeking shelter, said in a phone interview that the aftermath of the kidnappings is also dire. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.