An eight year-old Tennessee orphan taken to Syria by her ISIS supporter parents still speaks with an American accent - and was beaten by an Islamic State 'carer' assigned to look after her when her parents died.
Aminah Mohamad spoke with a researcher from the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism (ICSVE), offering insight into her trauma-filled young life.
'I only know that my mom died, and my dad died,' Aminah told the researcher. The youngster, born in Tennessee to American mom Ariel Bradley, 25, still has her US accent, and does not appear to be able to speak Arabic. She also gave her age as six, rather than eight, during the ICSVE interview.
Aminah has been living in hiding since she began the sole survivor of a 2018 airstrike that killed her mother, stepfather and little brothers, the Daily Beast reported. The girl was injured in the attack and still scars from the blast.
Following her family's deaths, Aminah was placed in the care of one of her stepfather's other wives, an ISIS detainee who remained loyal to the cause, at Camp Roj.
Aminah Mohamad (pictured), an 8-year-old American girl who grew up under ISIS rule, says she doesn't know much about her family or where she came from noting: 'I only know that my mom died, and my dad died'
'I don’t know her; she just takes care of me,' Aminah said when the ICSVE asked about her caretaker.
A Kurdish woman who Aminah reportedly opened up to in the camp claimed the orphan had been beaten and assaulted by her former caretaker. Aminah was also forced to do housework in their tent and was tasked with caring for the woman's son.
Simultaneously, Aminah was being actively hidden from local authorities who actively seek out orphans. She was placed in a niqab, a face covering that shows only the eyes, and which children do not normally wear, in effort to disguise the fact that she was not her caretaker's biological daughter.
According to the women who helped facilitate her rescue, Aminah was 'languishing in the camp' and faced several hardships including starvation.
She did not attend school and appeared to not understand Arabic, the native language of Syria. Aminah's preferred language is English and she speaks with an American accent, the Beast reported.
Aminah was rescued from Camp Roj on July 17 and is being held at a secure location in northeast Syria as preparations are being made for her repatriation to the United States.
Aminah was rescued from Camp Roj (pictured) on July 17 and is being held at a secure location in northeast Syria as preparations are being made for her repatriation to the United States
The repatriation process, which is handled by the U.S. Department of State, involves a DNA confirmation of identity before Aminah can be brought home. Afterwards, authorities will work to determine a placement that is in her best interest.
‘Aminah has been through things that no child should ever go through – war, hunger, the deaths of her mother, father and stepfather, being hidden away. She will need a lot of supports, psychological and material,' Galbraith, who is not involved in the placement process, explained.
The state department did not provide DailyMail.com with specific details on Aminah's case, however a spokesman said in a statement, the country's official policy is to: 'repatriate, prosecute when appropriate, rehabilitate when possible and reintegrate their foreign terrorist fighter nationals and associated family members currently living in northeast Syria and Iraq'.
The youngster's grandparents, aunt and uncle live in Tennessee, and say they will push to adopt Aminah when she returns to the United States.
'We are and have been actively working the many steps it will take for Aminah to come home,' Aminah's uncle, Daniel Bradley, of Chattanooga, told DailyMail.com. 'We anticipate the day Aminah will return to the United States to live with her family.'
Aminah's mom, Ariel Bradley, grew up in a devout Christian household in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and converted to Islam in 2011
Aminah was born on December 8, 2011 to Chattanooga-native Ariel Bradley who grew up a strict Evangelical Christian, but later rebelled against her devout upbringing.
Bradley became a drug-taking anti-climate change protester, before converting to Islam after taking up with an Iraqi refugee based in Sweden - Yasin Mohamad - who is Aminah's father. The couple also shared a son together, Yaqub, and moved to Syria to join ISIS in 2014.
Mohamad was killed while fighting in 2015, with Bradley then marrying Australian pediatrician Tareq Kamleh. Kamleh is the father of Bradley's third child, a boy named Yousef.
Bradley, Kamleh, Yaqub and Yousef were killed in a hospital air strike in 2018 that left Aminah injured, according to the Daily Beast. She has been left with permanent scars as a result of that bombing.
Aminah and her parents had been living under ISIS rule since her parents joined the terrorist organization in 2014. After her family's deaths, she was then sent to Camp Roj, a Kurdish-controlled detention camp for people with ties to the Islamic State.
Camp Roj is famously home to Shamima Begum, a British ISIS bride who fled London in February 2015 at the age of just 15 to join the caliphate.
Begum married a Dutch ISIS fighter, and is said to have joined the terror group's morality police. Her husband and three children have all died, with Begum currently pleading to be allowed home to the UK, despite being stripped of her citizenship.
Aminah was rescued from the facility last month after a Canadian woman who has since denounced her ties to the terrorist organization managed to alert former US diplomat Peter Galbraith of her condition.
According to Galbraith, a group of Somali women living together took steps to hide Aminah from the Kurdish guards, who would regularly search for orphans.
Galbraith, who dealt with the Kurds for the United States government and has spent the past three years trying to repatriate women and children from the detention camps, was alerted of Aminah's condition after successfully rescuing another family.
