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Outlook: Escaping after an IS massacre

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Escaping after an IS massacre

09/09/2021 GMT

BBC World Service - Outlook, Escaping after an IS massacre

Ali Hussein Kadhim was a captured Iraqi soldier who narrowly avoided execution

Ali Hussein Kadhim was an Iraqi soldier captured by Islamic State group fighters. He is one of a few survivors of an atrocity that killed an estimated 1,700 men.

Ali Hussein Kadhim was a new Iraqi army recruit when the Islamic State group first emerged. As the militants approached, he and thousand of other unarmed cadets fled their base in Tikrit, but they were captured and taken for execution. Miraculously, Ali survived, but he was left stuck in enemy territory and needed help. Ali spoke to Outlook's Mobeen Azhar, and his story contains strong descriptions of violence. 

When Anoushka Shankar was young, she knew that the legendary Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar was an important figure in her family, but it was only when she was seven that she learned he was her father. The discovery would change Anoushka’s life – with Ravi as her teacher she mastered the instrument and began a career performing both with her father and as a virtuoso sitarist in her own right. Anoushka spoke to Emily Webb about the role her father played in her life, and the musical world he opened up for her. This interview was first broadcast in 2019.

Photo: Ali Hussein Kadhim, taken from the documentary Once Upon a Time in Iraq
Credit: BBC

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