ISIS Massacre Survivor Speaks Out

Ali Hussein Kadhim, 23, a Shiite-background Iraqi soldier, was captured with about 1,700 other soldiers by ISIS fighters on June 12th and taken to the grounds of one of Saddam Hussein’s former palaces near Tikrit, according to a story in the New York Times.

The New York Times verified his dramatic story using witness accounts, a Human Rights Watch report and videos of the massacre.

When Ali and the other recruits heard ISIS was nearby, they panicked. “Our morale was very low,” he concedes. The American-trained army officers fled as they had in Mosul, Ali reports. “The recruits tried to flee, but it was too late.”