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00.02.42

Remember the bad old days just a few months back?  Baghdad’s American occupiers so hated that even rival Sunni and Shia insurgent militias would join forces to ambush and kill US soldiers – before turning on each other again.

00.02.58

 This hardcore footage of the aftermath of one such attack in Baghdad, filmed by one Abu Tariq, formerly official cameraman for a Sunni Muslim insurgent group, the Islamic Army.  He’s a veteran of the Seige of Fallujah, the Battle of Najaf and the Surge of Baghdad.

00.03.18

Abu Tariq lived in a Sunni neighbourhood called Amiriya, near Baghdad’s international airport.  And he documented its descent into chaos. He still lives there now.

00.03.34

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Abu Tariq

 “The situation in Amiriya previously was absolutely awful. It was so bad, very violent, employees couldn’t go to work. So the area became totally dead. You can see it in my footage. Shops were shut, simple services non-existent, garbage all over the place, no water, no electricity. People started packing up and leaving. It was all because of Al Qaeda. The choice was either to give in to al Qaeda or fight them.”

00.04.06

The residents of Amiriya – or more accurately, the Sunni insurgents of Amiriya – chose to stand and fight their former al Qaeda allies. They rebranded themselves as the swashbuckling “Knights of Amiriya.” And they’ve ridden to the rescue.

00.04.24

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Abu Tariq

“It all kicked off when we gathered the men of the area and decided to stand up against them. That was the start of the ‘Awakening’… and the battles began in Amiriya.  I remember it very well. I was on my way to work. I was stopped and told ‘Abu Tariq, there’s been a clash between al Qaeda and some men from Amiriya.’  When the main battle happened, 13 fighters took part. I was one of them.”

00.04.52

Whatever else he shot in the past, today Abu Tariq mostly shoots pictures – of the Knights of Amiriyah and their shining armour.  For he is their media department;  official cameraman now for jihadi insurgents-turned good guys, the scourge of al Qaeda in Mesopotamia.

00.05.13

The Knights of Amiriyah have just raided an al Qaeda bolthole.

They unload the spoils of war from their black BMW, which still has a Deutscheland sticker on the bumper.

 00.05.24

The Americans claim that by putting former Sunni warlords on the US payroll they’ve virtually forced al Qaeda out of Baghdad now – and cut the number of murders in the capital by 80 per cent.

00.05.38

Knights’ spokesman makes statement

“In the name of God the Almighty….and prayers on the Prophet…

Take 2

‘In the name of God the Almighty….and prayers on the Prophet… the Knights of Amiriya have raided the homes of Al Qaeda members…

00.06.01

Off camera, one of the other Knights corrects him. “Hideout,” they say. “Not homes.”

00.06.09

Take 3

‘In the name of God the Almighty….and prayers on the Prophet… the heroic Knights of Amiriya have raided a hideout of Al Qaeda. We captured some of their stock of weapons… rockets… PKC bullets… mortars… katioucahs rockets… explosives… explosive belts…

00.06.32

Abu Tariq shoots, directs and edits all his own work.  He likes to get the choreography right and will do it again and again, however many takes it takes.

00.06.43

Privately, he admits that he likes to add an artistic flourish when and where  necessary to demonstrate how the Knights now keep the peace in Amiriyah.   In an iron-fisted sort of way.

UPSOT machine gun  

00.06.57

While still ambivalent towards US forces, thousands of Amiriya’s erstwhile Sunni insurgents – who are also known as the Amiriya Freedom Fighters – are now paid $400 each every month by the Americans, who’ve come to rely on their new best friends

00.07.13

VOX POP Fighter 1 Face Covered

“We have volunteered for the Knights of Amiriya, to get rid of al Qaeda, and Inshallah, soon we will have cleansed Amiriya of these non-believers… with the help of God.”

00.07.27

VOX POP Fighter 2 Face Covered

“We advise those who are involved with al Qaeda to leave and stop their criminal activities and ask forgiveness from Almighty God and join the ranks of the Knights of Amiriya to cleanse this area from these criminals.”

00.07.43

Abu Tariq

Knights of Amiriya Official Cameraman

“Whoever we capture from al Qaeda, we hand them over to US Forces. All the work is done by the Knights, to be perfectly honest.  I know, because I’ve been with them throughout.  I followed the action with them.  They raided, they captured, they were always the first to go in, even if the Americans were there.  They don’t know who’s who… The American soldiers now wouldn’t arrest anyone unless he was brought to them by the Knights.”

00.08.17

UPSOT US SOLDIER

“I’m Captain Brian Wayman.”

00.08.19

Abu Tariq’s Freedom Fighter media division recently paid Captain Brian a visit to register his appreciation – for the record.

00.08.28

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Capt. Brian Wayman

“I think the Amiriya Freedom Fighters have done an excellent job in the month that I worked with them. In that limited period of time, they’ve caught and killed more Al Qaeda members than we’ve been able to do in quite some time… possibly an entire year. While we’ve been working with them, we have not suffered any American casualties… whereas in the previous month, before we were working with them, we had 14 American soldiers killed in Amiriya.”

00.08.58

In recent months, The Awakening Council of the Knights of Mesopotamia (Baghdad Chapter) has spread beyond the bounds of Amiriya, into other neighbourhoods where al Qaeda’s jihadis are also now on the run.

00.09.12

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Abu Tariq

Knights of Amiriya Official Cameraman

“Thanks be to God, we can say that things are 90 per cent better now.  It’s much calmer. You can go out and see for yourself.  We are hoping for the best, that Iraq goes back to how it was, that we can come and go as we please.”

00.09.35

The once benighted neighbourhood has indeed been resurrected. Abu Tariq’s pictures show the amazing security turnaround.

00.09.44

This is the road to Amiriya today.  Residential sidestreets are being resurfaced.  A reassuringly abnormal Baghdad street scene. 

00.09.57

Local residents, not long ago too scared to even emerge from their houses, now queue in the streets for commodites they’d long gone without. 

00.10.11

VOX POP

“As residents of Amiriya, we have been without any gas or water or any services.  But thanks to our sons, the Knights of Amiriya, we have gas and the streets are fixed and we hope for the best.”

00.10.25

VOX POP LITTLE BOY

“The Knights of Amiriya protect us and guard the area and because of them, we can go to school.  Without them, we couldn’t have done that, or even gone out onto the street.  The situation would be really bad if it hadn’t been for them.”

00.10.39

For US forces, it was a hell of a gamble to give more guns and money to men who’d previously busied themselves blowing up American soldiers.

Abu Tarek’s camera has captured his friends’ journey from anti-US insurgents to American-salaried neighbourhood policemen.  Life in Amiriya isn’t exactly “normal” and this certainly isn’t peace. But it may just give those who live here a chance to catch their breath.

END