Panorama.S2014E27.Isis.Terror.In.Iraq

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Panorama.S2014E27.Isis.Terror.In.Iraq
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00:00Iraq is being torn apart. Tonight, Panorama reports from the heart of the fighting. The
00:15battle is against ISIS, a brutal jihadi group that grew out of Al-Qaeda. It's declared an
00:23Islamic state. We hear the story of ISIS from the inside. This is the place. They put two
00:29corpses down there and the heads up there. You're either with me or against me. If you're
00:35against me, you will be killed. We would receive orders to kill a specific person. But could
00:45the conflict eventually spill out of the Middle East? We talked to a British jihadi. If you
00:51don't leave our Muslim brothers around the globe and mind your own business, then you
00:57can expect these attacks.
01:26We're in northern Iraq. These are the Kurds. They have their own military, and they're
01:33in their own fight with ISIS. A general's talking to a tribal sheikh who's pledged loyalty
01:41to the jihadis. Turn over the foreign fighters in your town, the general says, or there will
01:47be blood. The general's appeal fails. In the next town, they're Sunni Muslim. They've
02:16joined with ISIS to rebel against Iraq's Shia Muslim-led government. ISIS is a Sunni
02:31jihadi group that grew out of Al-Qaeda, but which has now eclipsed it in power and violence.
02:42Sunni and Shiite. Iraq is tearing itself apart along its many fault lines. ISIS is the catalyst.
03:01Lahur Talabani grew up a refugee from Saddam Hussein in Beckenham, south London. We were
03:07under attack from different directions last night. You saw the fighting when it started
03:13until five o'clock in the morning from all directions. Now the former business management
03:22student is head of Kurdish intelligence. What kind of enemy is ISIS? A very dangerous enemy.
03:32That's attracted forces from all over the world that have come here to fight and they are willing
03:38to die for what they believe in. A Kurdish unit moves carefully into the small town of Jalala.
03:45ISIS wants it for their new Islamic state, declared across parts of Iraq and Syria. The
03:52Kurdish fighters, known as Peshmerga, are trying to stop them. The battle's over by
04:10the time we arrive. But the Kurdish fighters believe ISIS reinforcements are being sent
04:19to the outskirts of town. Okay, I think we need to be out on foot. Yeah, turn around.
04:27Well, let's get into cover. Just get into cover here and then we get out on foot.
04:31Down, down, down. They spot movement. Down here, down here, down here. Bullets come in from
04:58several different directions. The Peshmerga thought they had secured this place but they've
05:17just been told of 75 vehicles with ISIS fighters making their way here to try to cut them off.
05:24The battle's going backwards and forwards. Things are still very fluid here. We are with half a
05:34dozen men who are trapped with ISIS on three sides. You need to find the most senior commander
05:39you can find and get them to get the troops. Can you hear me? There's growing panic. They think
05:45the jihadis are coming in through the back of a building. They know what ISIS does to prisoners.
05:50Everyone here expects to be shot or beheaded if captured. This man was shot through the leg.
06:10It turns out this was not the main ISIS force but a smaller attack. The group attracts foreign
06:28jihadis from around the world. Here, the Peshmerga think, ISIS was trying to recover the bodies of
06:35so they couldn't be identified. The bodies that we captured, none of them were Iraqis. And then
06:43we noticed that they were trying very, very hard not to leave anybody behind, even their dead. The
06:48ones that they did leave behind, as many as they could, they would destroy their faces. They would
06:55just empty a whole magazine of bullets into their faces and completely destroy their faces. They
06:59wouldn't be able to recognize them. We know there are the numbers of the Brits that have joined the
07:06fight in Syria with ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra. It's around 400. We believe around 200 of those
07:14guys are still amongst those forces. Do you think there are Brits on this front line? We haven't
07:19seen any evidence, even though yesterday one of the casualties of the ISIS that was killed,
07:25he was wearing this particular gloves, which is Gold's Gym in Surrey, I think. Very particular
07:34gloves that they sell in that gym. He was a foreign fighter, Arab nationality.
07:40ISIS has swept over a third of Iraq. Mosul, Tikrit, the approaches to Baghdad. They now
07:53call themselves simply the Islamic State. The captured towns are majority Sunni.
07:59Some Sunni tribes helped ISIS because of what they say is years of persecution by Iraq's Shiite-led
08:16government. Another reason a few thousand ISIS fighters were able to put 100,000 Iraqi troops
08:24to flight. Terror. This is the Islamic State's own Twitter feed. ISIS claims it executed more
08:38than 1,700 prisoners in the town of Tikrit. We found a deserter whose whole battalion fled
08:50without firing a single shot. ISIS still 20 miles away. The morale of the soldiers was shaken. We
09:03were serving at checkpoints. The other troops withdrew from their areas. Even the high-ranking
09:08officers and a lieutenant colonel left. The Sunni troops did not want to fight other Sunnis. The
09:18Shia soldiers had no interest in defending Sunni towns. The army is not to blame. It's the officials
09:27who are responsible for putting the army in such a situation. We wanted a fight, but when we saw
09:33what was happening, the troops just collapsed. Some soldiers cried. They asked, why is this
09:39happening? Nobody was shooting at us. The enemy was nowhere near. Some Sunnis support ISIS, but
09:49the Iraqi army's humiliation leaves millions of others trapped under a new and terrifying regime.
09:54We can't travel to the Islamic State to see conditions for ourselves. They arrest Western
10:03journalists as spies. Instead, we're heading into parts of Syria that were held by ISIS to find out
10:10what life is like under their rule. That journey starts in Turkey. Turkey's border with Syria is a
10:19hinterland of safe houses and supply lines. It's been used as a rear operating base by both the
10:25Free Syrian Army and by ISIS. The Islamic State is no longer welcome here, and so you can find
10:32many Syrians who are in hiding from ISIS. We're meeting an ISIS defector. Why do you have to
10:48disguise yourself for this interview? ISIS's brutality terrifies everyone, not only me. My
10:57family, my cousins, my siblings are all still there. I fear for them all. He joined ISIS as
11:12they were better armed and because he was attracted by the promise of an Islamic State.
11:17In the beginning, ISIS were kind to the population in order to attract people to
11:25their cause, and they provided them with what they needed in order to appeal to them quickly.
11:30Once ISIS succeeded in attracting people, they changed dramatically from being good to being
11:44cruel and harsh. You're either with me or against me. There is nothing in between. If you're against
11:56me, then you will be killed. He left because he was sickened by what he witnessed. Fearing for his
12:07own life, he knew he had to flee. My last meeting was with the Emir about some business. On his way
12:17out, I shot him three times. I heard him scream, and then I packed my rifle and ran. I tried not
12:25to leave any traces behind me. Then, with the help of some people on the border, I was able to get
12:32into Turkey. This is the road to Syria. We're crossing into territory that until recently would
12:43have been impossible to visit. Half an hour over the border is the town of Azaz. ISIS sees control
12:54here last September and implemented strict Sharia, or the ISIS version of it. The jihadis used the
13:06town's main roundabout to carry out floggings and beheadings. We meet a resident who saw it all.
13:16So, this is the place. They brought four men from the Free Syrian Army, and they slaughtered them
13:28here. They put two corpses down there, and the heads up there, and then left them from Friday
13:39morning prayers till the afternoon. Under ISIS, people were flogged for infringing the dress code,
13:48or for smoking. These nightmarish scenes are difficult to watch. Jihadis sentenced their
13:57enemies to death. The ghoulish crowd watched the spectacle. It's utterly shocking. Slaughtering
14:11a human being to them is like killing a bird. Not only that, but they also mutilate the corpses.
14:20They slaughter them, then hang the bodies up for four or five hours in the sun. Did most people in
14:25Azaz support this practice? Because I've seen video of people cheering. People are happy that
14:30this is happening. Nobody dared to say a word because they were scared of being killed. Anybody
14:37could be falsely accused of working for the FSA and be slaughtered. That's not an Islamic act,
14:45nor the actions of a human being. The West seems to think all Syrians are extremists. No, we are
14:52very moderate in our Islam. ISIS could do this because their view of Islam is actually shared
14:59by some people here. Do you agree with that? No, they are not popular at all. We completely
15:06disassociate ourselves from them. They impose themselves on us using military force. So what
15:12we're hearing from this gentleman is an account of how ISIS ruled with the whip, with the sword,
15:16and that comes from their very literal interpretation of Islam. I wish to go back to
15:20what they see as a more pure form of Islam in the Prophet's time. It may also be part of a very
15:25deliberate strategy. What took place here was an attempt to break society in order to remake it.
15:32You need a lot of violence and a lot of bloodshed to do that. When ISIS were driven out of Azaz in
15:42March, they left behind mass graves. We obtained video taken from the mobile phone of an ISIS
15:51fighter. It shows those they've killed. Their bodies are dragged along like sacks of rubbish.
16:03The Islamic State is using Islam as a cover for their extremism. No freedom of opinion exists.
16:19Any legitimate Islamic practice that might threaten the goals of the Islamic State is
16:25considered a sin. They practice Islam in appearance only, and to control minds.
16:32The thought that such a state could become a permanent fixture in the Middle East
16:46horrifies Iraq's neighbours and the wider world.
16:49We arrive in Baghdad to find out how Iraq's government is fighting back.
16:59Government troops are on the offensive around the capital. Inside, the city is on edge.
17:09Tensions between Sunni and Shia are stretched to breaking point.
17:14The Iraqi police believe that hidden among the Sunni population are more than 2,000 ISIS sleeper
17:36agents. The general in charge of finding them tells me they've arrested a very dangerous
17:51man, the deputy commander of an ISIS hit squad.
17:56During this whole period, we didn't do much. We were dormant this last year. We were told to sit
18:13and wait. But about four or five months ago, I received orders to reorganise and activate our
18:20cell. We would receive orders to kill a specific person. We carried out the murder of a member of
18:32a local council. Was there any preparation of car bombs or was this all assassination? No,
18:41we don't use car bombs. We conduct assassinations. However, we did use a sticky bomb to assassinate
18:47the city councillor. We also used a sticky bomb in the assassination of a Sunni tribal leader.
18:52Are you paid a salary or do you do this out of belief? No, we don't do this for money. It's for
18:59our faith. However, there is a salary too. The going rate for an ISIS killer? About $250 a month.
19:07I told our commander that I wanted to leave the group. He replied that nobody can quit this kind
19:16of work. Shiites at prayer. To defeat ISIS, the country will have to come together. The
19:34people are retreating into their own communities. After worship, men flock to join up, but not the
19:47police or army, the Shiite militias. Shield of the Message is one of those militias. Shiites
20:01have been killed in large numbers by ISIS. This is the response. These are the true believers.
20:08Unlike the Iraqi army, these men will stand and fight. They take us to the nearest front line,
20:22half an hour out of Baghdad, on the road to Fallujah. This is where ISIS will have to be
20:32stopped. No-one can doubt their fervour, but they are volunteers, labourers, businessmen and taxi
20:51drivers. These men are entrusted with the Western defence of the capital. They say they fight for
20:57the state, but they speak the language of jihad. We are committed to God, His Prophet and His
21:05family in death or in victory. With the help of God, let the rats hear us. Let ISIS hear us. We
21:12are not the ones who fled from Mosul. We are here to die. We don't want salaries. We don't want
21:18anything. We came here for martyrdom. We came here for martyrdom. They insist they will fight
21:31for nation, not sect. But to Sunnis, nothing is more frightening than a Shiite militia on the
21:40march. The coffin is for a Sunni man. He went to hospital with a cousin. Both were abducted
22:06right under the noses of the security forces. His family blame a Shiite militia. He told me
22:19that he was scared of going to hospital. He said, you stay here and work because I'm worried
22:25something might happen. That's what he said. When we tried to call them at around two o'clock,
22:35their mobiles were switched off. We went to find them and we found them in Al-Harir.
22:40They'd been killed. No one, including the police, can say anything to them. No one can hold them to
22:55account. We're even afraid of them in the streets. But they are not yet turning to ISIS.
23:05ISIS doesn't even represent 10% of the revolutionaries. If you give them their
23:13rights, this whole thing would be over. Even a goat herder knows this.
23:18The Sunnis here don't want to rebel against Baghdad, but they feel they can't turn to the
23:29government or to the police for help. So they're stuck between the Shiite militias on the one hand
23:34and the jihadis of the Islamic State on the other. The Prime Minister they so mistrust,
23:47Nouri al-Maliki, trying to rally the nation. He is accused of running a sectarian government,
24:02of tolerating death squads, of keeping money and power for the Shia. He carries a lot of the blame.
24:11Maliki created a Shia-dominated state in which Sunni were marginalized. There are
24:18villages outside Fallujah, Sunni villages, where most of the young men are in jail. Many of them
24:26confess to capital crimes, under torture. Sometimes they're on death row for crimes
24:32that somebody else has already been executed for. So no wonder that if you're a Sunni young
24:40man from these places, joining ISIS doesn't seem that much more dangerous than staying at home.
24:46If Prime Minister Maliki can't gain the Sunnis confidence and persuade them to fight the jihadis,
24:55a third of the country will belong to this man, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of ISIS.
25:03The new caliph, as he calls himself, takes Friday prayers at Mosul's Grand Mosque. To
25:21make way for Baghdadi, ISIS killed the existing imam, according to the UN,
25:26as well as a dozen other clerics, all refused to swear allegiance to the Islamic State.
25:31This sermon seems to promise global jihad.
25:37The caliph says all Muslims should come to his new empire. It's thought that hundreds of young
25:58Britons have already joined ISIS. I spoke to one man on Skype who says he's a British jihadist with
26:06ISIS in Syria. He calls himself Abu Samaya al-Britani and says he's on the waiting list
26:13to be a suicide bomber. Everybody's got their name on the list and everybody is forcing the
26:20Emir to put their name, you know, to push it up. You know, everybody want to fight for the sake
26:25of Allah. He denies that he and other foreigners in ISIS are being trained to carry out attacks
26:31back home. They've even destroyed their passports. But that could change if the West intervenes
26:46against the Islamic State. If the British government commits terror against our people,
26:54is unjust towards our people, kills and murders and rapes our people, then you can expect attacks
27:05on your soil. If you don't leave our Muslim brothers around the globe and mind your own
27:10business and support our enemies against us, then you can expect these attacks. And so can America,
27:16and so can any other country. Western countries could try to avoid provoking ISIS and the young
27:23Muslims it's trained for martyrdom. But the Islamic State is determined to grow. A clash
27:29may be inevitable, says one of the world's leading experts on radicalisation. I think when we look at
27:36the overall aspirations of ISIS, it wants to take over the whole world and subjugate it to its
27:41version of political Islam. And so the real question is, we need to ask ourselves, is that
27:46unfortunately at one stage or another, we are going to be drawn into a confrontation with them.
27:50The issue is how long is that event horizon? Is it 12 months, 5 years, 10 years, 50 years? But at
27:57one point or another, we will have to confront them. The West faces a decision, whether to
28:03confront the new caliphate or leave it to grow. There are risks either way. For now, the war
28:11against ISIS remains in the Middle East. How long will it stay there?
28:25Coming up later, a cabinet reshuffle underway, the veteran Ken Clark is leaving the government,
28:32we'll have the latest, and an historic vote by the Church of England to allow women to
28:36become bishops. That's at 10.