Monaly Najeeb heard gunshots outside around 4 a.m. and rushed under her bed, holding her breath as the Islamic State (IS) gunman burst into the room.
The bedroom in Monaly and you's dorm. Photo: CNN
The bedroom in the dormitory in Kirkuk, a city controlled by the Kurdish militia in Iraq, is tiled with gray stone and has several beds. This is the residence of Monaly Najeeb and six Christian schoolgirls, after IS took control of the city of Mosul, forcing them to leave school, according to CNN.
They moved to Kirkuk and started studying and praying again. The church-run dormitory became a safe haven for the girls, until one last weekend.
The nightmare began in the early morning hours of October 21, said Monaly, an engineering graduate who now works as an instructor for other female students.
Around 4:00, they heard gunfire and explosions outside the dormitory. Five days ago, a coalition of Iraqi government forces and Kurdish militia launched a major offensive to drive IS out of Mosul, making Kirkuk, a city 160 kilometers south of the country, the target of IS retaliation.
Before that, Monaly had heard that IS had overrun their university in Mosul, burning thousands of books, demanding teaching and learning according to the organization's own harsh Islamic curriculum. The girls' families had to leave their ancestral homeland in Qaraqosh, Iraq's largest Christian city, and evacuate.
Now, in their dorm room, they must once again struggle to survive. But this time, they chose to stay, not run away.
Monaly and the others wrapped blankets around their bodies to prevent stray bullets. Moments later, they heard people in the kitchen next to the room and the sound of opening the refrigerator and rummaging through the drawers.
They hid under the bed, holding their breath because they didn't know if it was the Iraqi army or ISIS. Monaly wanted to scream for help, but if she was reckless and got the wrong target, she and her friends would surely die.
So Monaly lay still, hoping everyone's phones were on silent mode. If a person with a severe allergy coughs or sneezes, everything will fall apart. Monaly clutched the rosary and prayed.
"Please help us," she texted Father Roni Momika, a young priest in Erbil who is in charge of evacuating Christians. "Have you been in contact with the military?"
"Pray to the Virgin Mary," he advised. "He will protect you".
The girls were scared, cowering as the men left the kitchen and into the bedroom. At this point, they knew it was IS fighters through their voices. Some of the rebels sat on the bed and started eating. Someone rummaged through the girls' bags and found women's clothes inside.
Monaly is increasingly worried. She often reads that IS tortures and abuses women. They beat, raped, forced women into slavery. Now, those guys broke into the house and knew there was a woman living inside. Monaly is not as afraid of death as she is of being raped. She shivered at the thought of being crushed by disgusting people.
An IS fighter captured by a coalition of Iraqi forces and Kurdish militia. Photo: CNN
Outside the dormitory, the fighting continued. ISIS fighters opened fire on the Iraqi coalition, trying to capture key buildings as bases.
The rebels brought the wounded into the dormitory. A man was moved in, lying on the bed. His blood seeped through the mattress, dripping onto his friend Monaly below.
However, no one moved or made any noise. An IS gunman covered the wounded with a blanket. He could have removed the blanket covering Monaly but fortunately chose another one. Two men sat to her right, so close that she could feel one's shoes touching her.
More than 7 hours have passed, each person's cell phone battery is gradually depleted, the only means of communication with the outside is cut off.
"They'll kill us," Monaly texted Momika's father one last time, then the phone went black. In Erbil, Momika's father, holding the phone in his hand, began to cry.
Fortunately, a girl's phone has not run out of battery. They received instructions on how to get out.
When the men in the room received the phone asking to leave, the girls were also about to escape when Monaly listened and discovered the sound of running water in the bathroom. She knew the IS fighters were still in the house. They quietly crawled out from under the bed, followed the instructions of the Iraqi police, followed the back door and ran towards the 2.5 meter high wall. Monaly takes the lead.
Luckily there was a chair in front of the wall. The women stepped on chairs, climbed over the wall. Moments later, ISIS fighters detonated their suicide belts. Monaly saw their remains when she returned to the dormitory the next day.
Monaly has survived IS and says there is nothing to fear. Photo: CNN
Sitting in the family's new home in Erbil, Monaly quietly narrated the story. As she spoke, she kept reciting the rosary.
"I don't know how we're still alive," she said.
Anwar Omer Rasool, a police officer in Kirkuk, confirmed Monaly was trapped in her dormitory when IS attacked the city.
Monaly and her friends all felt they were saved by a series of miracles. No one coughs or sneezes. No one's phone rings. In front of the high wall was a chair that normally didn't exist.
Monaly used to lose hope many times when facing difficulties in her life, but now, she has more confidence. When receiving an interview, Monaly asked to remain anonymous but eventually changed.
"I'm ready," Monaly said. She wants the world to know about her and what she's going through because Monaly has survived ISIS and has nothing to fear.
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