Out of Darkness

Hassan Abu Ahmed, held by ISIS, he had no hope, until he heard the drones.

Accused of being a spy, Hassan was regularly tortured. At times, a plastic bag was placed over his head until he nearly passed out. He was electrocuted, beaten with plastic pipes and whipped with an electric cable. 

"They'd put a gun to your head and (say) we are going to kill you now, and then shoot next to you," Hassan said. "We always feared execution."

Oct 21^st, the day before the raid, Hassan heard the drones buzzing overhead from the cell he shared with dozens of other prisoners. The raid was supposed to be led by Kurdish forces, but being pinned down the U.S. troops were called in.

On Oct. 22, at 2:00 am, Kurdish Special Forces launched their mission - accompanied by about 30 U.S. troops. U.S. Chinook and Black Hawk helicopters also took part. "Paratroopers, paratroopers!" the guards yelled in the confusion. (No paratroopers were in the raid.)

He admits giving information to the Kurds "I was giving information to people here because we wanted our areas to be liberated," he said. "Eyewitness observation of what was happening in the area, numbers of Daesh people, whether they had any intention to attack," he said, using an Arabic term for the Islamic State.