BABIL, Iraq — Hantoush Shaker, from Babil governorate (100 kilometers, or 62 miles, south of Baghdad) has not abandoned hope for the return of his 20-year-old son Saeed, who went missing after the massacre of military cadets at Camp Speicher. On June 11, armed groups, led by members of the Islamic State (IS) attacked the city of Tikrit, the hub of Salahuddin province, and claimed to have killed around 1,700 cadets at the province's air base, 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Baghdad.

Nevertheless, Shaker is desperate to find his son alive, so he sought to meet with officials in the Ministry of Defense in the Green Zone in Baghdad.

At the checkpoint at the entrance of the heavily fortified security zone, the guards explained to him that it was prohibited to enter the ministry. When Shaker told them his story, they sympathized with him and advised him to write a letter to the ministry, that they would attach to the mail to be delivered there. Shaker headed to the nearest “petition writer” in a neighboring region and rushed back to the soldiers in the Green Zone to hand it in, only to return to his home city empty-handed.

Shaker told Al-Monitor, “I have been waiting for an answer ever since July 5.”