Video of Iraq fighter slicing body of ISIS terrorist goes viral , Man against ISIS : Abu Asrael
Video has emerged of a high-profile Iraqi commander
of a Shia militia slicing the charred body of a man he accused of being a
fighter from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
The video of Abu Azrael, translated from
Arabic as "Father of the Angel of Death," was allegedly shot in Beiji,
a northern oil refinery town where Iraqi forces backed by Shia militias are
battling ISIL.
"They sent their elite fighters they
said, and look at the third one we got, slicing him off. Where will they run
away from us?," Abu Azrael said as he started cutting up the charred body
with a sword.
Abu Azrael's Imam Ali Brigades are part of
the Popular Mobilisation Forces, a coalition of Iraqi Shia militias sponsored
and armed by the Iraqi government.
Dubbed "Iraq's Rambo" by some,
Abu Azrael has become something of an online celebrity as Iraqis disappointed
with the country's army's limited success in fighting ISIL put their hope in
alternative forces.
A Facebook page dedicated to the commander
has been "liked" more than 130,000 times.
His pledge to reduce ISIL fighters to
"flour" has become a rallying call among Shia fighters taking on the
group.
Abu Azrael was quick to defend his actions
as the Beiji video was spread online and the hashtag "Sunni burned and
sliced with sword" trended on Twitter.
The commander only expressed regret that
the video had been posted with a comment that he had " burned a body of an
Iraqi Sunni man in Beiji".
"Would I burn a Sunni man?," he
asked in a video response. "These were from the Caucasus. One of them was
Asian."
Shia militias in Iraq have previously been
accused of severe human rights violations and revenge attacks in areas
recaptured from ISIL.
A number of graphic videos of Shia fighters
committing atrocities have surfaced this year, including one of a Sunni civilian
being hit on the head with an axe and another of fighters making jokes and
taunting a burning body.
In a March report, Human Rights Watch
accused Iraqi government forces and Shia fighters of burning and looting dozens
of Sunni villages in northeastern Iraq, displacing thousands.
The Iraqi government has said it will
investigate reports of abuse.
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