Special to WorldTribune.com

Kurdish and U.S. commandos on Oct. 22 freed 68 hostages in Iraq who were on the verge of being executed by Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL).

The hostages were freed after a fierce firefight which resulted in the first American casualty in ground combat in Iraq since 2011.

Saad Khalaf Ali, one of the hostages, told Reuters that he first heard helicopter rotors outside his detention cell, then saw the door broken down by a Kurdish commando holding an M16 rifle.

“Are any of you Kurds?” Ali said the commando shouted. “We said no, we are Arabs.

“Don’t be afraid, we have come to liberate you with the Americans,” the commando told the hostages.

Ali, a former Iraqi policeman, recounted his ordeal to Reuters, which included being smothered with a plastic bag by ISIL interrogators until he passed out, only to be jolted back to his senses by an electric current.

Ali said he the torture led him to confess “to everything,” telling ISIL about positions of Kurdish and Iraqi forces. He was then blindfolded, hauled before a judge and sentenced to death. The sentence was set to be carried out on Oct. 22.

Many of the 68 hostages who were freed by Kurdish and U.S. commandos were former members of the Iraqi security forces.

Another of the detainees, Ahmed Mahmoud Mustafa, said he and 38 others were held in a windowless room, were expected to remain silent, pray five times a day and read Islamic lessons provided by ISIL jihadists.

Cameras in the corners of the room monitored their movements, and they were sometimes forced to watch clips of beheadings played on a large screen, Mustafa told Reuters.

Another hostage, Mohammed Abd Ahmed, said he had been whipped 50 times for criticizing ISIL, and was warned any further criticism would result in his tongue being cut off.

Saad told Reuters that on Oct. 21, four prisoners were removed from the room and shortly thereafter gunshots were heard. The men did not return. Saad said he was then told it would be his turn the following morning.

Around 2 a.m. on Oct. 22, Saad said he heard the sound of the helicopter rotors and his ordeal was soon over.

  commando rescue, Kurds freed 68 ISIL hostages awaiting execution: ‘We have come to liberate you with the Americans’, torture, WorldTribune.com