Reporter Fouad Hady is on patrol with the Shiah armed forces. ISIS is just a few hundred metres away and if these men don't stop them, the ISIS forces could reach Baghdad within hours.
SOLDIER (Translation): With them, get him.
Sadr City - the poorest area of Baghdad. Fertile ground for the most radical of the Shiah and in the grounds of this mosque, Shiah recruits are training for battle.
SOLDIER (Translation): Run.
REPORTER (Translation): Where are you fighting today?
SOLDIER (Translation): Today, God willing and with God’s help, we are going to Diyala. God is the Greatest!
They have just four days' instruction before they're sent to the front. And their equipment is no match for the modern armoury captured by ISIS.
SOLDIER (Translation): These are all personal weapons from the young men. Some of them sold their cupboards in their houses, others sold their wives jewelry and bought the them... so they are personal weapons.
REPORTER (Translation): What type of weapon?
SOLDIER (Translation): Kalashnikov.
REPORTER (Translation): Current address?
SOLDIER (Translation): Baghdad.
SOLDIER (Translation): Today all of you are martyrs, ticking bombs in the hands of the honourable leader, Moqtada al-Sadr. At your service, at your service, Moqtada! One by one.
Watching them head off to the front-line, on rooftops all around the city, armed men are standing guard. They're ready, they say, for any Sunni uprising within the city.
SOLDIER (Translation): Anyone who thinks of attacking or entering Iraq must know there are men who don’t sleep, the people of Sadr City are lions who will be on the lookout.
The men are drawn from crowds like this - Shia faithful – prepared to fight to the death and fiercely loyal to the man who once led a bloody insurgency against US troops in Iraq. The cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
SOLDIER (Translation): “Who are you” Peace Brigade! Imam’s Army!
SOLDIERS (Translation): Peace Brigade! Imam’s Army!
They call themselves the Army of the al-Mahdi.
SOLDIER (Translation): I want you to make Sunnis hear! Who are you?
SOLDIERS (Translation): Peace Brigades! Imam’s Army!
They were formed in 2003 by Muqtada al-Sadr in the power struggles following the fall of Saddam Hussein.
SOLDIER (Translation): Whoever doesn’t want to die, should leave our homeland.”
Strongly anti-American, they fought both the Sun forces and the US military and were accused of the massacre of Sunni civilians.
SOLDIER (Translation): I will teach you a lesson. I can devour even a tank.
SOLDIERS (Translation): One, two, three Mahdi!
And Fouad finds they will do anything they can to win.
REPORTER (Translation): So what do you do?
SOLDIER (Translation): Suicide belt.
REPORTER (Translation): A martyr. Will you kill yourself?
SOLDIER (Translation): For Iraq.
REPORTER (Translation): For Iraq?
SOLDIER (Translation): Yes
Today is a show of strength to their ISIS enemies. To the Iraqi Government, to other Shia militia, and a chance for these fighters to feel a sense of unity at a time of growing danger.
SOLDIER (Translation): The gathering extends to the end of Sadr City.
REPORTER (Translation): Are there a million here?
SOLDIER (Translation): More than a million. We have more equipment and greater numbers. God willing.
Just a few metres from the front-line, Fouad meets with the local elders. This was once a place where Shia and Sunni lived and worked together and the elders mourned that loss.
REPORTER (Translation): Was there disagreement back then between Sunni and Shiite?
ELDER (Translation): No, there wasn’t. There was no disagreement, God forbid. After the downfall, for a year, we were without a government. No state or nothing, the tribes lived in harmony. Normal.
ELDER (Translation): More than 20 of our men have intermarried with their women.
REPORTER (Translation): Intermarried?
ELDER (Translation): Yes. Our cousins fight us. We say this openly. What can we do?
Their peaceful village has become a battleground. All around them the Shia fighters take up positions as ISIS pushes ever closer. Women and the youngest of the boys have been sent to safety, with the enemy now just 500m away.
SOLDIER (Translation): Come on men! Come upstairs. Come on man!
General Abdel Rahman is the head of Iraqi intelligence for Diyala Province.
REPORTER (Translation): Tell me about the foreign fighters. It seems that you have a lot of valuable information.
From the safety of his home, covered by security cameras, the general knows only too well how vicious this war has become. His legs were blown off in February by a roadside bomb. It was planted by Sunni insurgents whose numbers are now swelling with international recruits.
GENERAL ABDEL RAHMAN (Translation): Fighters come from Afghanistan. Fighters come from Turkey. Fighters come from Russia. Fighters come from America, Britain, Australia...
REPORTER (Translation): Tell me about Australia. What will happen after these armed groups return to their countries?
GENERAL ABDEL RAHMAN (Translation): These groups trained to kill so they will represent a major danger to their countries.
REPORTER (Translation): Are they tough fighters?
GENERAL ABDEL RAHMAN (Translation): Of course. They are fighters trained in explosives, booby trapping, assassinations, kidnapping, and they, in my view, will create havoc in their countries.
As the tension in Iraq build, as more men fight and die, and with the capital bracing for ISIS to breach its defences, the general is watching, wondering if peace will ever come to his war-torn land. And the men at the front tenuously hold the line.
SOLDIER (Translation): With them, get him.
Sadr City - the poorest area of Baghdad. Fertile ground for the most radical of the Shiah and in the grounds of this mosque, Shiah recruits are training for battle.
SOLDIER (Translation): Run.
REPORTER (Translation): Where are you fighting today?
SOLDIER (Translation): Today, God willing and with God’s help, we are going to Diyala. God is the Greatest!
They have just four days' instruction before they're sent to the front. And their equipment is no match for the modern armoury captured by ISIS.
SOLDIER (Translation): These are all personal weapons from the young men. Some of them sold their cupboards in their houses, others sold their wives jewelry and bought the them... so they are personal weapons.
REPORTER (Translation): What type of weapon?
SOLDIER (Translation): Kalashnikov.
REPORTER (Translation): Current address?
SOLDIER (Translation): Baghdad.
SOLDIER (Translation): Today all of you are martyrs, ticking bombs in the hands of the honourable leader, Moqtada al-Sadr. At your service, at your service, Moqtada! One by one.
Watching them head off to the front-line, on rooftops all around the city, armed men are standing guard. They're ready, they say, for any Sunni uprising within the city.
SOLDIER (Translation): Anyone who thinks of attacking or entering Iraq must know there are men who don’t sleep, the people of Sadr City are lions who will be on the lookout.
The men are drawn from crowds like this - Shia faithful – prepared to fight to the death and fiercely loyal to the man who once led a bloody insurgency against US troops in Iraq. The cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
SOLDIER (Translation): “Who are you” Peace Brigade! Imam’s Army!
SOLDIERS (Translation): Peace Brigade! Imam’s Army!
They call themselves the Army of the al-Mahdi.
SOLDIER (Translation): I want you to make Sunnis hear! Who are you?
SOLDIERS (Translation): Peace Brigades! Imam’s Army!
They were formed in 2003 by Muqtada al-Sadr in the power struggles following the fall of Saddam Hussein.
SOLDIER (Translation): Whoever doesn’t want to die, should leave our homeland.”
Strongly anti-American, they fought both the Sun forces and the US military and were accused of the massacre of Sunni civilians.
SOLDIER (Translation): I will teach you a lesson. I can devour even a tank.
SOLDIERS (Translation): One, two, three Mahdi!
And Fouad finds they will do anything they can to win.
REPORTER (Translation): So what do you do?
SOLDIER (Translation): Suicide belt.
REPORTER (Translation): A martyr. Will you kill yourself?
SOLDIER (Translation): For Iraq.
REPORTER (Translation): For Iraq?
SOLDIER (Translation): Yes
Today is a show of strength to their ISIS enemies. To the Iraqi Government, to other Shia militia, and a chance for these fighters to feel a sense of unity at a time of growing danger.
SOLDIER (Translation): The gathering extends to the end of Sadr City.
REPORTER (Translation): Are there a million here?
SOLDIER (Translation): More than a million. We have more equipment and greater numbers. God willing.
Just a few metres from the front-line, Fouad meets with the local elders. This was once a place where Shia and Sunni lived and worked together and the elders mourned that loss.
REPORTER (Translation): Was there disagreement back then between Sunni and Shiite?
ELDER (Translation): No, there wasn’t. There was no disagreement, God forbid. After the downfall, for a year, we were without a government. No state or nothing, the tribes lived in harmony. Normal.
ELDER (Translation): More than 20 of our men have intermarried with their women.
REPORTER (Translation): Intermarried?
ELDER (Translation): Yes. Our cousins fight us. We say this openly. What can we do?
Their peaceful village has become a battleground. All around them the Shia fighters take up positions as ISIS pushes ever closer. Women and the youngest of the boys have been sent to safety, with the enemy now just 500m away.
SOLDIER (Translation): Come on men! Come upstairs. Come on man!
General Abdel Rahman is the head of Iraqi intelligence for Diyala Province.
REPORTER (Translation): Tell me about the foreign fighters. It seems that you have a lot of valuable information.
From the safety of his home, covered by security cameras, the general knows only too well how vicious this war has become. His legs were blown off in February by a roadside bomb. It was planted by Sunni insurgents whose numbers are now swelling with international recruits.
GENERAL ABDEL RAHMAN (Translation): Fighters come from Afghanistan. Fighters come from Turkey. Fighters come from Russia. Fighters come from America, Britain, Australia...
REPORTER (Translation): Tell me about Australia. What will happen after these armed groups return to their countries?
GENERAL ABDEL RAHMAN (Translation): These groups trained to kill so they will represent a major danger to their countries.
REPORTER (Translation): Are they tough fighters?
GENERAL ABDEL RAHMAN (Translation): Of course. They are fighters trained in explosives, booby trapping, assassinations, kidnapping, and they, in my view, will create havoc in their countries.
As the tension in Iraq build, as more men fight and die, and with the capital bracing for ISIS to breach its defences, the general is watching, wondering if peace will ever come to his war-torn land. And the men at the front tenuously hold the line.