Not heroes but monsters - DER SPIEGEL

Blindingly / / the-mirror / non-hero-but-monster / bnl-the-mirror-20170519-5da7d947357

Not heroes, but monsters

A photographer accompanies members of a special unit to document their struggle against the IS. And suddenly,
a lot of people, a lot of people.

Prisoner Mahmoud at the Headquarters of the Iraqi EarthForce The father hung on the ceiling, complained
his back with waterbottles, then they began to beat him

PHOTOS: ALIARKADY / VII / REDUX / LAIF

Torture allegations against Iraqi special units

The Iraqi photographer and documentary filmmaker Ali Arkady has been completing the events in his home
country since 2006. He is not only an excellent photographer, his diverse contacts in the country as well as
numerous documentaries, he also gave him an unusually deep insights into the different Conflict foe of Iraq.

Since 2011 the SPIEGEL cooperates with Arkady. The torture scenes, rapes, and targeted killings that Ali Arkady
photographed and photographed over the past. The SPIEGEL also reported that Iraqi security forces arbitrarily
detain, torture and kill people.

For example, in Shuite militias in May of last year. For the first time in the history of the Shuite militia, Witnesses
told each other of abducted relatives. Even then it was said to be a thousand. Fugitives from other provinces of
Iraq confirmed the abductions. But there was always evidence beyond the witnesses and the deserted places.

Ali Arkady has now delivered these. There is no doubt about the authenticity of his material and the identity of the
1/7
perpetrators. Mossul is a member of the Mossul Group. Many reporters had previously experienced the Iraqi
army units as liberators. Perhaps because they could not see what was happening outside the city? Arkady's
unit, the Emergency Response Division, which is under the responsibility of the Ministry of Interior, did not carry
their victims out of the villages, always at night, when there were no journalists.

I come from Chanakin, a small city in the north-east of Iraq, where the Kurdish and Arabic parts meet. With Sun,
Shiites, Kurds and Arabs, live side by side and together. Perhaps I thought it would be a good idea.

In October of last year, I began to work as a volunteer in the United States, the United States, and the United
States ). The at least what the plan.

They were the father on the ceiling, squirmed his back with waterbottles, then began to beat him

During the liberation of the city of Fallujah, I had two members of this unit in the summer. Even then, they were
talking about killing people. But then I thought they were joking.

It was the first time that Mossul's liberation had begun: Chief Omar Nazar, a Sunnis, and Haider Ali, a Shiite
unofficial. They would be opponents after all the usual stereotypes. But the two were "buddies," the closest
friends on the battlefield. I accompanied, filmed her for days. The idea was to make the two protagonists of a
documentary film: The film was to show that.

I set up a Facebook site, called Happy Baghdad, I set up a two-minute video of the two under the title "Liberators,
not Destroyers". The echo was overwhelming, 345 815 views, the page was divided 1360 times and commented.
I'm on the right track, I thought.

I resolved to follow the two until the end of this, the liberation of Mosul. Both agreed to become the "heroes" of my
story. It is about showing that not only the elite fighters of the "Golden Division", but also other units do
remarkable, courageous things.

PHOTOS: ALIARKADY / VII / REDUX / LAIF

2/7
Omars and Haider's troop, the Emergency Response Division, had started small. But since summer 2014, when
all of Iraq was at war with the IS, the troops grew rapidly. It was divided into three groups: reconnaissance, sniper
rifles and the combat group. Captain Omar Nazar orders the combat group, which also includes Haider Ali, the
unofficial official.

The men carried out raids and nightly command operations. They were trained mainly by Americans. From the
ERD commander, Colonel Thamer, Mohammed Ismail, I was given permission to accompany the troops in their
assignments.

With each battle won, the self-confidence of my protagonists grew. At the end of October 2016, I photographed
for the SPIEGEL in Iraq and held me with Omar and Haider at the head of the force in Kajara, south of Mosul, not
far from a US base.

On Oct. 22, Omars men with two young prisoners came to the base, presumed IS supporters. I photographed
them, but I did not know what would happen to them. Later, the soldiers told me that the two were tortured. A
week later, they were killed.

From this point on, my project started to change. My "heroes" did things I never thought possible. At first I was
only allowed to watch it.

I drove back home, and Omar and Haider had two weeks off. We had arranged to meet again at Hamam al-Alil's
new headquarters, a little closer to Mosul. I arrived before them on November 11th. So I got to know the other
officers and from then on I got even more. More than I liked and I could have imagined myself: torture, rape, but
also murders of people. Or not even that.

The soldiers had just taken back the village of Kabr al-Abd from the IS. Captain Thamer al-Duri, who was
responsible for the Intelligence Department, ran the raids. I would like to go back to the hotel. He has been at an
IS man.

At first it took him a few hours to beat him and interrogate him. But even then the captain Duri told me that he
would take the man again in a few days and then kill. On November 22, 2008, at the end of the year,

Raad Hindiya slept with his family in a room when they arrested him. The soldiers took him to Captain Omar
Nazar, my protagonist, where they were tortured. There he was tortured for a week. Subsequently, he was killed
together with other IS suspects. This was what Captain Duri told me later.

The same night they arrested a young man named Rashid, who was innocent, even the Enlightenment of the
Iraqi army said. But his big brother had gone to the IS, as was his wife. This was Rashid's doom. He died under
torture after three days, I saw his corpse in the quarters of the secret service.

Now the nightmare began. The small town Hamam al-Alil had been completely liberated from IS. Many who had
fled before the fighting came back. The ERD teams set out to arrest young men, officially, to clarify whether IS
men were among them. Among the prisoners was a father and his 16 year old son, the soldiers brought both to
headquarters.

3/7
Ministry of the Interior Ministry near Mossul, Fathi Ahmed Saleh's famished family They dragged the man
out of the room, then unofficial

PHOTOS: ALIARKADY / VII / REDUX / LAIF

Mahdi Mahmoud, the father, hungry with his arms behind his heads. The son sat next door and could hear his
father's screams. And I was there and filmed. No one stopped me. Then they beat the son before the eyes of his
father. Later they killed the son.

Everything became more and more out of control. I thought, where are you just there? Why do they make you
film how they torture people? What should be the "Islamic State"? But they do not think like journalists. It was just
as normal.

I would like to be a part of it.

At the same time, I said to myself: You have to take this! You must document, prove what they are doing, show
that they commit was crimes. Arbil in the Kurdish area. Arbil in the Kurdish area. At night I was alone with the
troops of the Ministry of the Interior.

In the middle of December we moved to the other side of the Tigris, into a new base in Baswaja on the eastern
edge of Mosul. There were two young brothers, Laith and Ahmed, who had already been arrested by the "Golden
Division," but had been released, for lack of evidence. Now they had captured and brought back here. But in the
night there were no officers, only the soldiers who were responsible for torture.

They were the first to be the first. Ali, one of the soldiers, boasted.

I was surprised, frightened that they let me film everything. I stayed for an hour. The next morning, a soldier told
me that I had been tortured to death during the night, and I had a video of their bodies, even sent me about
WhatsApp.

On December 16, the two men in Baswaja arrived, and I wanted to shoot about my documentation: Captain
4/7
Omar Nazar and Unofficial Haider Ali, the Sunnis and the Shiite, who wanted to fight together against the IS.
Already the same night, they went on with their orders. The soldiers had received several names from an
informer, names of men who had allegedly fought for the IS earlier. The soldiers simply leave, without further
clarification, or an order from the higher officers. I was allowed to come back.

Fathi Ahmed Saleh. Fathi Ahmed Saleh. They were out of the room. He had slept with his wife and the three
children. Unofficial Haider Ali went to the room, announced that he was going to rape the woman. I would like to
have a good time. Five minutes later, I met Haider Ali in front of the open door. The woman was crying. Captain
Omar Nazar asked him what he had done.

"Nothing," answers Haider Ali, "she had her days."

I filmed in the room. She looked at me. I filmed without thinking.

When I look at the video later, when I saw her, I thought: So that people can know what happened! In the
meantime the other soldiers.

The last prisoner of this night was a young national of the mobilization units, in Arabic for short: Hashd, who also
fight against the IS. He was Sunnis, but the Shiite did not like Sunnis. They took him to the building of Omar
Nazar, where he was raped by one of the soldiers. The men I have had experienced hard, heavy fighting. But
now they thought they would be allowed. Murder, rape, everything is halal, legitimate. Captain Omar said, "Oh,
everything, we've taken men, women, plundered the houses."

I was surprised. They even sent me a video of the corpses.

The answer: "Okay, what is to be done!" The superiors knew everything. The Americans must have been aware
of what happened.

PHOTOS: ALIARKADY / VII / REDUX / LAIF

5/7
If you are looking for a job, you have to go to a place where you want to go. The fight against the "Islamic State"
was less and less important.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact us at any time. Thank you for your patience.

It was my last days at the ERD. I could not endure it, filming what happened, and later thought, "This could be my
wife, my daughter. When chief Omar and one of the soldiers beat other prisoners, They asked me to join in. It
was an absurd situation: everyone Treated me as part of their team.

I got it to work with the fear, I was a Kurd, worked for an American photo agency. They were too four, armed, I
was alone. They said: "Now come, come on, go!" Then I gave one of the prisoners an ear. Not too hard, not too
soft. It was terrible and the last thing I did there.

I had a good time. I would like to go to Chanakin, but only for a few days. Afterwards, I took my family to safety
and left Iraq. My country. But it's not as bad as it is.

Now I understand why it is so easy to take Mossul and other Sunni territories. The people were not afraid of
military protection. Only that the IS has ultimately aggravated its situation.

Now we live abroad. Where exactly, I would not write for security reasons. I wonder how Omar and Haider think
about me now. I did not even broke an appointment, did not filmed anything secretly.

Everyone has watched as I documented their abuse for hours. Yes, they even sent me videos of their murders
when I asked them. And in the case of the killed brothers, they even said explicitly that. They have lost all the
scales for what is right and wrong.

Originally, I wanted to be a part of our life. This will no longer happen.

I would like to be recognized as heroes. That too will not happen.

It is not easy to start a new life somewhere else. Chanakin is my home, I loved living there. But this is the price
for my work, for, to publish what I've seen. It's my price, I'll pay it.

6/7
Prisoner Ahmed in the middle of December east of Mosul: They stabbed him behind the ear with a knife

ALIARKADY / VII / REDUX / LAIF

Since Omar, Haider, and the other officers have understood what the publication of their deeds can mean to
them, I receive threats. First came questions: "We must speak to Ali, where is he?"

Then it became oder concrete. Very concretely.

When I traveled to Qatar on January 4, 2017, everything was quiet quiet. After I arrived, I contacted Haider Ali
about Facebook, asked if he could send me the video. The man runs through the steppes and begs for his life,
they simply shoot at him as he runs, even as he is already on the ground.

"Sure," Haider wrote back - and sent me the video. I still have it on my phone.

Ali Arkady

7/7