Navy SEAL Recounts Finding Survivors in Mosul Horror

About this video

A guest recounts his experience on June 1-2, 2017, during the Battle of Mosul, when ISIS massacred at least 165 civilians trying to escape. He describes treating wounded civilians through the night and discovering survivors hiding in piles of bodies the next morning. The guest details a dangerous rescue mission under heavy fire in which he and his team saved a young girl and one man, though he was shot in the leg and forced to leave one wounded Iraqi behind, later reflecting on the difficulty of processing such trauma.

Key takeaways

• The guest recounts that June 1, 2017 was the deadliest day of the Battle of Mosul, with ISIS massacring at least 165 civilians (possibly 225 total) who attempted to flee
• The guest describes a rescue mission to save survivors hiding in piles of bodies 50 meters from an ISIS-occupied hospital, conducted under artillery smoke cover and heavy fire
• The guest shares that he was shot in the leg during the rescue and had to make the decision to leave a wounded Iraqi man behind, an experience he processed through talking openly and writing a book about his experiences

Episode details: published April 17, 2026 · 2.8K views · 20:59 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Stories told by Mike Ritland’s podcast guests are the guests’ own accounts, attributed to them — not independently verified. Commentary is Ritland’s, presented as his analysis.

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