Men who quit their jobs and went to fight against ISIS

As a child growing up in London, Yassin Yassin hardly imagined that he would be at the front in Iraq. Apart from the need to leave the country destroyed by Saddam Hussein's regime to go to his family in the UK, his life was quite normal.

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Source: vice.com

Yassin is now 24 years old, and he recently returned to London from Iraq, where he photographed armed formations fighting on the side of the government. They prefer not to call themselves just a "militia", since their main goal is quite serious — to prevent the advance of ISIS units (a terrorist organization banned in Russia. — Ed.). The current project is one of Yassin's attempts to understand what has become of the country he once left, and with the residents who are now arming themselves to fight ISIS because they are afraid that the situation will get out of control.

Spending time with three groups — "Kataib Jund al-Imam", "Tayyar al-Rizali" and "Forket al imam Ali", Yassin managed to feel not only constant fear for his life, but also the amazing camaraderie created by these circumstances.

"At first I was scared, because I had never faced such dangers before, but over time, when I began to notice how calm and relaxed all these people were, my fear receded," Yassin said. And after he was shown a building nearby, hit by the shelling of ISIS militants, he realized that he was getting real experience from a combat zone.

How did you manage to get into the ranks of the militia? Yassin: I flew out of the UK and started visiting these militia groups, asking if I could capture their actions. Of course, it was difficult. Many people didn't trust me, they thought I could be a spy. But one of my relatives was familiar with a TV reporter, who, in turn, was familiar with members of one of the militia groups, so they let me into one of the bases.

What does a typical day at the base look like? It's hard to describe a typical day because every day is unique. I was there before the liberation of Fallujah — this city fell back in January 2014. At that time, the Hashd al-Shaabi group was defending itself, and I was with them at the front, watching them try to contain the enemy.

How was it? What did you see? What were you allowed to see? Each militia group consists of two parts, soldiers and a media team, the guys from which took me with them to Speicher camp in Tikrit. I saw the engineer who created the bombs. He did not allow himself to be photographed, but told me that during the American invasion he worked as a translator for the American army.

A little later I met a soldier who fought on the side of the Iraqi government in 2003. He was a member of a group that brought the American army a lot of problems. He was not familiar with that engineer, but it seemed interesting to me that two Iraqis with absolutely opposite political views are now fighting together against a common enemy. All the people in Hashd al-Shaabi have a common goal — they want to destroy ISIS. They were all very funny and treated me with respect.

Whose stories do you remember the most? There was a guy named Malik. I met him at Camp Speicher. In his 20s with a penny, he is fighting jihadists, and by the time I took the picture, he had been doing this for about a year. He told me about the agreement between him and his four older brothers: if he dies, one of them will take his place, and so on until they all pass away. He has excellent human qualities — he is kind, endearing, we talked after our paths parted. But at the same time, I saw another side of Malik. I forgot that he was a warrior killing enemy soldiers, and realized it again only when he showed me photos and videos taken during the last battle.

Given what you have experienced, what do you think what you have seen means? As a British Iraqi, I am really sad to see what has happened. When you go to Iraq and see the conditions in which people live there — corruption, dirty streets, very low level of service — you feel powerless. But this project has taught me one thing: Iraqis go through a lot of trials, but at the same time they are incredibly strong, passionate people who can still smile and laugh in the face of difficulties. Every day on the streets of Baghdad is like Russian roulette. Quite literally: if you find yourself in the wrong place at the wrong time, you will simply die. But even that doesn't stop people. They can't stay at home and do nothing, because they need to live somehow.