In June of 2014, ISIS massacred an estimated 1,700 Iraqi military cadets who were in training at Camp Speicher, a former U.S. base near the city of Tikrit. That number would likely have been higher by hundreds were it not for one woman and her town, who worked together to save and shelter fleeing cadets.
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“I can hear a voice calling now that reminds me of them,” the woman, Um Qusay, says in the above excerpt from FRONTLINE’s new documentary “Once Upon a Time in Iraq.” Gazing out on the same river she helped the cadets cross before hiding them in her home, she remembers hearing their cries: “Save us, save us. We are your brothers.”
She and others in her town of al Alam heeded their call. All told, she says, she and the people of al Alam helped save 850 men from Speicher.
“Of course we were afraid,” she says. But putting herself in danger to help the cadets was a risk was worth taking.
“The reason was that first of all, they are Iraqi,” Um Qusay says. “And secondly, I hated ISIS. Someone has to help and stand against them.”
Then, she offers a closing thought: “And without love, the whole world would be killing each other.”
Watch “Once Upon a Time in Iraq” in full starting July 14: https://to.pbs.org/2CAMKi8
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