Beyond front lines in Iraq, a forgotten force faces Islamic State
Sheikh Mohammed jumped into his battered Toyota pickup and offered a visiting journalist his rusting Kalashnikov assault rifle for the three-mile ride to the front lines. The offer rejected, he told his cousin Ali not to mention the journalist’s presence on the internal radio system because Islamic State fighters less than a mile away monitor the […]Mitchell Prothero reports for Mcclatchy:
Sheikh Mohammed jumped into his battered Toyota pickup and offered a visiting journalist his rusting Kalashnikov assault rifle for the three-mile ride to the front lines. The offer rejected, he told his cousin Ali not to mention the journalist’s presence on the internal radio system because Islamic State fighters less than a mile away monitor the channel and they might mount an attack specifically to capture a journalist.
“Every last man of ours will die to protect you if they attack,” Sheikh Mohammed said with a rhetorical flourish. Then he laughed. “But there are a lot of them and they have tanks.” Sheikh Mohammed and Ali – they asked that their family and tribal names not be used because they still have family in Islamic State-occupied Mosul – are nearly forgotten players in the nasty war that’s embroiled most of Iraq.
