Then he moved on, joining 35,000 other freedom-loving idealists in the International Brigades that were fighting the fascists in Catalonia on behalf of the Spanish Republic. He served with the American volunteers in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, was promoted to officer, and fought in the pivotal Battle of the Ebro, often called the first battle of the Second World War. Nuri was one of only two Iraqis in the International Brigades. The other was his friend, an Iraqi Jew named Setti Abraham Horresh.
