Hundreds of Russian children found in Mideast orphanages
Children ripped from their homes in Russia and secreted off by relatives said to be fighting for the Islamic State are now turning up abandoned in the Middle East.
Four-year-old Bilal Tagirov is looking at his mother but can’t recognize her. He spent the past two years in Syria and then Iraq with his father, who allegedly was fighting alongside Islamic State (IS) terrorists. According to Zaliha Ashahanova, Bilal’s mother and a Chechnya resident, the boy’s father abducted him in 2015.
For more than two years, Ashahanova has been trying to locate the boy. Bilal was found in Mosul in mid-July by Iraqi troops.
A video shot by the soldiers shows the boy wandering alone through the flashpoint city. When he sees the Iraqi flag, he identifies it as belonging to unbelievers. When WhatsApp users spread the video of Bilal, his mother saw it and recognized him. On Aug. 2, 4-year-old Bilal arrived safely home.
“I can’t say at the moment how I feel. Of course I’m happy. I don’t even know how to express my gratitude, because I didn’t think that I would see this day and that it would come so soon,” his mother told reporters.
