VETERANOS DE AYER

“POISONED PAYMENT"

The story lived (credible or not) by a supposed former mercenary of the Daesh that throws more light on what really happened from 2014 until the end of 2017.

By Dany Smith

It was the last days of the month of April 2017 and the Iraqi forces along with the Iranians and the Shia popular militias adhering to the Baghdad government were advancing unchecked towards Mosul. The forces of the so-called "Islamic State" were losing ground quickly forcing them to retreat hopelessly and without caring about the fate of the civilians of the most important city in the north, they began to deploy their ambush tactics to wait for what their propaganda called "apostates".

This is the story of a European member of the so-called "ISIS" or how the Iraqis baptized "Daesh" that clarifies many of those doubts and mysteries about the origin, function and objectives of this pseudo Islamic fable. His Islamic name, Ahmed Din J. (of whom we will only say this), is cataloged as a "Yahid" (holy fighter), today unrecognizable for having removed his long beard, without his black robes with the straps and armored vest of American origin used in its operations Iraq and far from those circumstances, says that was part of the elite militia near the core of the organization, which we remember that before the eyes of the spectators was led by a subject named Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi identity as dark as the robe he wore.

To this day no one knows where he is or what was the self-proclaimed "Caliph", whose identity and religious affiliation there are many doubts Investigating the subject would be exciting and the attempt was not futile. After several contacts with someone who claimed to have been part of that story, we agreed to meet in a cafe in a European capital and there as two more parishioners, we saw each other and began an exciting dialogue that lasted almost two and a half hours between coffees and cigars. Here I will put only the most interesting part of that interview and the one that matters the most to try to see what the phenomenon of the "Islamic State" was about and is treated.

According to a part of our meeting: "We were having problems with the supplies and the supply routes from the north coming from Turkey were having difficulties to get us the supplies. The same happened with those that came from Deir Ezzor in Syria that were under the control of other allies and free of movement for what had been the border. "When I asked him how did he get to join the "Daesh" if he knew it was a farce? To which he replied "At the beginning I did not know, maybe I sensed that it could be a charade that would be executed for a short time and we would vanish, but never in the dimensions of what I saw". Then I asked him back. Did you think that all this organization was to help the Iraqis or to free the Syrians from Bashar Al Assad? To what he said without hesitation": Not at all. The pay was good and they needed my talents. Since I arrived at one of the training camps in the Sham region, I noticed that the stores and the campaign equipment was American, even many of the accoutrements were also, but in what were the armored vehicles and the artillery pieces "M198 Howitzer" some followed with their painted signs of the crossed sabers of the Saudi Arabian army ".

At one point I asked him to tell me what convinced him that he had been working for a "charade" and then he told me "I remember that we were being surrounded by the Shiite militias and I sensed that the end was coming. The American and British planes that had evaded us for more than two years were now degrading our positions. "Before that I stopped him to ask: Why do you say they had been evading them; What do you mean by this? And then after a snort, he continued saying "At the beginning I did not understand it, but then I realized that something was fixed, I also did as I did not realize and continued with my tasks". Then with my curiosity eating at me, I hurried to ask him: When did you realize that all this killing was already planned in advance or that there were other hands handling everything?

Then, giving a long whistle to his Turkish cigar said "By June (2017) the situation was impossible to reverse. Although we caused many casualties to the Iraqi militiamen, they did not stop and it was there that some things began to happen that I myself could see "; As which?: "One of the commanders of Al Baghdadi had his women and children picked up to be evacuated to Palmyra in Syria, because he told us 'our backs are covered.' I did not understand what he meant when, three days later in the evening, while with our unit we were exchanging light fire with the militias on the other side of the Tigris, blocking the bridge "Al Jumhurryah", I could see two helicopters at very low altitude that came from the northwest, began to fall a kilometer behind us. 

Believing that the Americans would disembark commandos to attack us, I took one of the trucks and with three of my men we went in a hurry but cautious. " He pauses for another whiff of his cigarette and continues: "I remember that as we approached where we saw that they had come down, I noticed that there were no civilians, at least not alive and everything was in ruins, until when we turned in a from the streets we came across a group apparently of ours (masked and in black uniforms) with two police vans blocked the pass while behind them about two hundred meters we saw one of these helicopters perched in a broad clearing located at the side of the road that moves towards the northeast while the other fluttered at low altitude ".

Without understanding the scene that he described to me, I asked him to clarify what happened then and so he went on saying: "It was a surprise but not so much and it saved my life. Before we could react, two of my men fell down shot by precise shots in the head; there were fencers on the surrounding roofs. While the gunner returned a flurry of fire on one of the roofs, I managed to get out of the truck quickly to nearby ruins. I ran so fast that I did not pay attention to what happened with the truck that ended up being riddled I guess by the masked ones. So, crawling through those ruins and advancing with my'AK-74' (it's a Russian-style submachine gun) in hand inside that half-ruined apple, I reached the end of the other street from where a holed in the wall I saw with clarity and amazement a disconcerting scene. At this he asked anxiously what he saw, to which he replied: "I saw as our commander, three women and four children along with several marines and special guards of the organization were preparing to climb the gate of that device."

And he continued saying: "Without being able to do anything and more worried that my colleagues did not detect me, I could only see how that helicopter rose raising a great dust to move away by the direction by which it had come. Before it and captive of his story, I begged him to continue and then said: "Wait until the night falls and there amid the rubble and torsos of dead people, I sit up and very quietly and guided by the noise of the fighting in the night, I returned to my position that to my surprise, no one had noticed my lack."

Everything would end up convincing me a week later, when after crossing to Syrian territory and from there to Turkey, we found a group of the "Islamic Army of Iraq" that had antagonized the Daesh and that was why they took us prisoners and took us out weapons. It was there that his commander a skinny Iraqi with coppery skin and penetrating eyes told us 'you are all stupid, the Daesh is a hoax' and it was there that among several of the tests he showed us, some horrible photographs appeared that showed who he had been commander of the Daesh (which had been rescued by the helicopter the previous week) and his women unearthed with their hands bound, blindfolded and buried in mass graves somewhere in the desert of "Al Sham". After a month or so of being from that moment I was able to cross to Turkey and from there I returned to Europe but not to my house since it´s possible that the authorities of my country are looking for me ".

His story is similar to that of many Iraqis who witnessed these unusual rescues and even the supplies with flights of transport planes parachuting tons of weapons and explosives for armed militants. Maybe, they would be getting rid of witnesses?