BAGHDAD, IRAQ—In a small, nondescript building in a
middle-class neighborhood here in the Iraqi capital, a young man in
fatigues laughs as he shows me a video on his cellphone .
“Keep watching,” he says. “The terrorist starts to cry.”On the screen, three men—including Alaa, 24, who’s grinning as he holds the phone—taunt, kick and slice a prisoner with razor blades.
“He deserves this,” Alaa says.
The beaten man is allegedly a Saudi member of the Islamic State. The group, commonly known as ISIS, is a rampaging band of Sunni jihadi fighters, who have taken over large swaths of the country’s north and western regions since early June, brutally killing their enemies in the process.
Alaa, who declined to give his last name, is a member of the Knights of Anger, one of many Shiite militias here in Baghdad that have sprung up after ISIS steamrolled through the north and the Iraqi army retreated. Since then, car bomb attacks have increased in mostly Shiite areas of this dust-strewn capital, and rumors of jihadi cells have put the city’s millions of Shiites on edge. Many on both sides of the religious divide believe a bitter sectarian war is inevitable.
It wouldn’t be the first time. In 2006, well after the U.S. invaded Iraq andousted
Saddam Hussein, a wave of anger and sectarian violence nearly tore the
country apart. Shiite death squads roamed the streets with impunity,
hunting down Sunni men, regardless of whether they were involved in the
bloody insurgency. The U.S. was able to help defuse the situation
by paying people to stop killing one another. But American troops are
long gone, and with the rise of ISIS, many here on the banks
of the Tigris River—the cradle of civilization—say that internecine war
has returned—and will only widen as ISIS consolidates its gains, using
the U.S.-made weapons it recently captured from the Iraqi army.
While Iraq’s security forces are technically in charge of guarding hundreds of checkpoints across the city, many here say they don’t have real control. Lending a hand: poorly trained Shiite militias like Alaa’s. These group have the blessing of the Iraqi government, but they seem toanswer only to the country’s religious leaders.
The clerics have asked the Shiite groups to prepare for battle, and many Sunnis already say the militias are responsible for a spate of kidnappings and grisly murders across Baghdad.
Alaa’s commander, Sheikh Raad, a weathered-looking, middle-aged man in fatigues, sees thingsdifferently . “My men are defending our homeland,” he says, shaking his fist for emphasis. “These men from ISIS…they demolish churches, behead Christian women and destroy our mosques.”
As we speak, the sheikh and I are sitting in his small headquarters,
which is decorated with Iraqi flags. Surrounding us are about a dozen
young fighters like Alaa, as well as older men wearing dishdashas—the traditional flowing robes many here favor in the intense summer heat.
“We Iraqis are very good warriors,” Sheikh Raad says. “We are the same people who kicked out the Americans. [But] we are not a militia, we are tribesmen. We responded to the call of the clerics.”
With ISIS calling for a showdown in Baghdad, the clerics have plenty of reasons to be concerned. In areas across Iraq and Syria already under its control, the group has meted out brutal, medieval-style justice. But the religious loyalties of the militias also mean that some armed groups are operating outside of government control.
A top security adviser to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki admitted as much when we spoke, though he asked to remain anonymous because the subject is so sensitive. “Since the troubles began last month, we have arrested around 200 militiamen who were operating on their own,” the adviser says. “They were blackmailing and robbing people.”
It’s these marauding, sometimes rogue militias that have many Sunnis worried about the future. That sense of fear is palpable on the other side of town, in the largely Sunni district of Adhamiya. This place was once a hotbed for the anti-U.S. insurgency, and today many here feel caught between ISIS and their Shiite adversaries.
“There is a conspiracy against all Sunnis in Iraq,” says Raed, a 28-year-old man who owns a local clothing store. (He declined to give me his last name for fear of becoming a target.)
This conspiracy, he says, didn’t start with ISIS; Sunnis have been protesting for years over how the government in Baghdad under al-Maliki has favored Shiites. But things have gotten worse since Mosul and other northern cities fell to the radical Islamic group.
As we sit in a shopping mall, listening to the Eagles song “Hotel California” playing on loop, Raed tells me how a Shiite militia abducted his father-in-law three years ago. The reason: his last name, Omar, which is popular among Sunnis.
“To this day,” he says, “we still do not know his fate.”
What Raed does know is harrowing: That the militia tortured his father by sticking a metal rod inside his penis.
The 28-year-old doesn’t support ISIS, but he worries that his life will be worse if the Shiite militias gain more power. And that’s a distinct possibility as a larger civil war looms. Whoever wins, few here have any hope that the other side will exercise restraint in when the fighting stops.
“Four of my closest friends have left for Istanbul with their families already,” says Raed. “They have no work. [But] if I can find a way, I will leave Iraq, too.”
“Keep watching,” he says. “The terrorist starts to cry.”On the screen, three men—including Alaa, 24, who’s grinning as he holds the phone—taunt, kick and slice a prisoner with razor blades.
 |
Members of the Knights of Anger militia in Baghdad.
The beaten man is allegedly a Saudi member of the Islamic State. The group, commonly known as ISIS, is a rampaging band of Sunni jihadi fighters, who have taken over large swaths of the country’s north and western regions since early June, brutally killing their enemies in the process.
Alaa, who declined to give his last name, is a member of the Knights of Anger, one of many Shiite militias here in Baghdad that have sprung up after ISIS steamrolled through the north and the Iraqi army retreated. Since then, car bomb attacks have increased in mostly Shiite areas of this dust-strewn capital, and rumors of jihadi cells have put the city’s millions of Shiites on edge. Many on both sides of the religious divide believe a bitter sectarian war is inevitable.
It wouldn’t be the first time. In 2006, well after the U.S. invaded Iraq and
While Iraq’s security forces are technically in charge of guarding hundreds of checkpoints across the city, many here say they don’t have real control. Lending a hand: poorly trained Shiite militias like Alaa’s. These group have the blessing of the Iraqi government, but they seem to
The clerics have asked the Shiite groups to prepare for battle, and many Sunnis already say the militias are responsible for a spate of kidnappings and grisly murders across Baghdad.
Alaa’s commander, Sheikh Raad, a weathered-looking, middle-aged man in fatigues, sees things
 |
Sheikh Raad, the commander of the Knights of Baghdad.
“We Iraqis are very good warriors,” Sheikh Raad says. “We are the same people who kicked out the Americans. [But] we are not a militia, we are tribesmen. We responded to the call of the clerics.”
With ISIS calling for a showdown in Baghdad, the clerics have plenty of reasons to be concerned. In areas across Iraq and Syria already under its control, the group has meted out brutal, medieval-style justice. But the religious loyalties of the militias also mean that some armed groups are operating outside of government control.
A top security adviser to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki admitted as much when we spoke, though he asked to remain anonymous because the subject is so sensitive. “Since the troubles began last month, we have arrested around 200 militiamen who were operating on their own,” the adviser says. “They were blackmailing and robbing people.”
 |
Shiite volunteers take part in a military-style training in Kerbala, southwest of Baghdad.REUTERS/Mushtaq Muhammed
It’s these marauding, sometimes rogue militias that have many Sunnis worried about the future. That sense of fear is palpable on the other side of town, in the largely Sunni district of Adhamiya. This place was once a hotbed for the anti-U.S. insurgency, and today many here feel caught between ISIS and their Shiite adversaries.
“There is a conspiracy against all Sunnis in Iraq,” says Raed, a 28-year-old man who owns a local clothing store. (He declined to give me his last name for fear of becoming a target.)
This conspiracy, he says, didn’t start with ISIS; Sunnis have been protesting for years over how the government in Baghdad under al-Maliki has favored Shiites. But things have gotten worse since Mosul and other northern cities fell to the radical Islamic group.
As we sit in a shopping mall, listening to the Eagles song “Hotel California” playing on loop, Raed tells me how a Shiite militia abducted his father-in-law three years ago. The reason: his last name, Omar, which is popular among Sunnis.
“To this day,” he says, “we still do not know his fate.”
What Raed does know is harrowing: That the militia tortured his father by sticking a metal rod inside his penis.
The 28-year-old doesn’t support ISIS, but he worries that his life will be worse if the Shiite militias gain more power. And that’s a distinct possibility as a larger civil war looms. Whoever wins, few here have any hope that the other side will exercise restraint in when the fighting stops.
“Four of my closest friends have left for Istanbul with their families already,” says Raed. “They have no work. [But] if I can find a way, I will leave Iraq, too.”
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