A distressing video which shows military personnel rescuing some injured women who are chained in what appears to be a camp is going viral on the internet.
What are users claiming?: Those sharing the video have claimed that the women belonged to Hindu and Christian community and hailed from India and Bangladesh.
The claim further stated that they were enslaved by the Islamic State (ISIS).
The video is being shared in the context of the recently released film, The Kerala Story.
An archive of the post can be seen here.
(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)
(More archives of similar claims can be found here, here, and here.) We received multiple queries about the video on our WhatsApp tipline.
What is the truth?: The video dates back to September 2022 and shows a women's military unit - YPJ (Yekîneyên Parastina Jin) - rescuing four women from an ISIS camp in Al-Hol, Syria.
According to YPJ, the victims were Yazidis - a minority group in Kurdistan.
There is no evidence to support the claim that these women belonged to Hindu or Christian communities.
How did we find out?: We extracted several keyframes from the video using a Google Chrome extension, InVID, and performed a reverse image search on them.
We came across a report published on a website called ANF News which carried similar visuals as the viral clip.
It said YPJ uploaded a video which documented the rescue of four women who were chained up inside a tent in the Al-Hol camp.
The operation was the second phase of the "Humanitarian Security Operation" launched against the terrorist attacks.
It was coordinated by the units of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) along with Asayish Command and the YPG.
It did not mention anything about the religion or the nationality of the victims.
The report was published on 6 September 2022.
(Source: ANF website/Screenshot)
The report also led us to a longer version of the video uploaded on the YouTube channel of SDF press.
United States Central Command statement: In a statement available on their website dated 18 September 2022, it mentioned that the YPJ forces completed a security operation in Al-Hol camp.
It said that six women, who were enslaved and tortured by the ISIS, were rescued.
Some of these women were captured as children. However, it did not contain any details about the victims.
The victims were Yazidis: According to a tweet thread available on the YPJ's Information and Documentation account, the women were Yazidi.
Team WebQoof did not find any evidence which supported the fact that the victims belonged to either Hindu and Christian community or that they were from India/Bangladesh.
The Quint has reached out to YPJ and SDF for their inputs/comments and the story will be updated as and when it is received.
Conclusion: There is no evidence to prove that the rescued women were from India or Bangladesh.
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