(CNN) Qassim Shesho stands on Mount Sinjar in northern Iraq, overlooking a vast mountain range that rises from the desert. The calm is deceptive.
He worries about the village behind him. Sheref ad-Din holds one of the holiest shrines for the Yazidis. ISIS militants are only two miles away.
“ISIS wants to exterminate us and they want to establish an Islamic caliphate, but Islam is not like what they are doing to us,” Shesho says. He says he commands about 2,000 Yazidi fighters.
Just months ago, he lived a peaceful life in Germany.
“I came back because my people are here. ISIS are terrorists. I came to defend my land, my family and my religion,” he tells CNN by phone, speaking in Arabic.
He didn’t come alone.
