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NameAhmed
Gendermale
Country of OriginSyrian Arab Republic
Destination CountryTurkey
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A 14-year-old boy sat roasting small pieces of skewered meat over a flame with his left hand, his missing right hand conspicuous despite his attempts to tuck it away. A member of the so-called Islamic State sawed his hand off a few months ago, along with his left foot. A cloth bandage covered the stump of his arm, while the bare end of his severed lower limb jutted out. With his uncles help, Ahmed – not his real name – hopped to a plastic stool that one of the children moved towards him. They told me that if I had been 15 or 16 I would have been killed, Ahmed said, implying he had been relatively fortunate compared to those older than him. Visibly shaking at times, defiant at others, he spoke to Refugees Deeply about the events that led to his punishment. Ahmed claimed some of his relatives had been involved in the uprising against the Syrian regime from the beginning and had later also fought against ISIS. When ISIS took over the area in eastern Syria in summer 2014, he continued living with his grandmother but had failed to ask for forgiveness from ISIS, he said, noting that this was a requirement for all those whose family members had opposed the extremist group. He had also resisted attending mandatory Sharia law courses. Schools in the area stopped running four years ago due to government bombing, he said. I started working as a mechanics assistant from age 10. (.) Soon afterward, family members managed to take him across the border to Turkey..

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