Two elderly Christian women have told their tale of survival in Iraq's Teleskof village after the Islamic State captured the town.
The town was taken by the Islamic State in August last year after militants overran security forces at the Mosul Dam.
When ISIS was nearing the town, all of its 4,000 Christians left their homes and fled for safety. However, 60-year-olds Sarya Matto and Madi Salim remained behind.
"I didn't have any family and relatives and I wasn't able to run," Matto told the International Christian Concern (ICC). She described the flight of the other Christians as so "terrifying" and said nobody bothered to help her and her companion to escape.
She found out that her friend Salim also chose to remain behind, so they got together and barricaded themselves in a room for 10 days. Islamic State fighters finally arrived in Teleskof and knocked on their door.
Matto said that they did not answer the door, but the Islamic State fighters forcibly kicked the door open. She also said that the militants demanded money, but they did not have any with them. However, the militants took her gold cross necklace.
Matto revealed that the three militants also discussed killing them, but one of them stated that it would be a "waste of bullets." They instead proceeded to beat the two women with the butts of their rifles before leaving.
The women had to hide for 15 days before the Peshmerga cleared Teleskof of any presence of ISIS at the end of August. Matto said that, when they heard conversations in Kurdish outside their door, they decided to reveal themselves.
"We immediately opened the door and we cried a lot when we saw them," Matto recalled the end of their ordeal. "They helped us. They brought us food and water."
Even though it has been liberated, ICC said that Teleskof remains a ghost town because of continuous fighting in the area.
