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.