With all the publicity ISIS gets, there aren’t many first-hand accounts from people they’ve taken prisoner escaping and living to tell the tale.

Through Hamody Jasim, a former Sergeant Major in the Iraqi military, Independent Journal was given a rare opportunity.

Jasim, the author of the Terrorist Whisperer, connected us with Master Sergeant Karam Saad, whom he served with during the Iraq War:

While Jasim was able to make it out in 2008, thanks to invaluable assistance with U.S. intelligence operations, Saad stayed behind. ISIS would take him prisoner six years later.

Saad shared his gripping story with Independent Journal.

To start things off, he brought us back to the day he was captured:

“It was June 10th 2014, and I needed to get some intelligence to Baghdad. At the time, I was keeping a low profile in Mosul, my hometown, which ISIS had just captured – and still runs today.

They were killing people, taking them prisoner, they were very thorough. As I was switching from my uncle’s house to my aunt’s around 11pm at night, ISIS caught me.

They had a roster of people in the Iraqi military, and asked if I was still loyal to Iraq…”

Read the Remainder at IJ Review