Hey, I'm Kelly McEvers, and this is Embedded.

USA Today recently ran an editorial with this headline.

Celebrate the fall of the ISIS Caliphate.

The editorial started quote,

the last malignant cells of a terror caliphate

that once sprawled from Syria to the gates of Baghdad

have been banquished.

And it went on to credit the American military with a quote,

victory for civilization over barbarity.

But on the same day this editorial was published

back in late March, we actually talked to a man,

an American man who was not celebrating.

Because for him, ISIS has not ended.

His name is Bashir al-Shqtar, he goes by a sheer.

And he says for him, ISIS won't end until he gets his kids back.

4 years ago Bashir's 4-year-old son, Yusuf,

and 9-month-old daughter, Zahra, were kidnapped by their mother

and taken to live in the Islamic State.

His wife actually snuck away while he was out of the country

on his first pilgrimage to Mecca.

He got home and found his house empty,

and his wife and kids just gone.

...