As ISIS battles a joint military assault by Iraqi forces and
Iranian-backed militias for the city of Tikrit, Iraqis elsewhere have set their
hopes on the burly shoulders of a man they’ve dubbed the Angel of Death.
Abu Azrael, as he is known, is purported to be a legendary
commander of the Imam Ali Brigade, an Iranian proxy group fighting in Iraq. He
has become a cult figure with Iraqi social media users creating tribute
Facebook pages to him and circulating images of Abu Azrael holding axes, waving
swords, and abusing the corpses of ISIS fighters.
Although his real identity remains unclear, local reports
claim he’s worked as a university lecturer and that he at one point won Iraq’s
national tae kwon do championship.
Tikrit is Saddam Hussein’s hometown and it has a great strategic
and emotional importance for the country’s Sunni minority. Some local reports
claim that the Iraqi and Shia forces have already seized large areas of the
city.
من هو أبو عزرائيل؟
* انهُ المدرس الجامعي الذي غادر قاعة الدرس ملبيا نداء الجهاد
* ماجستير تربية رياضية. pic.twitter.com/m2Ta1dVmhS
— هموم العراق (@hand_carry) March 8, 2015
البطل ابو عزرائيل في معركة تكريت حي الله رجال #الحشد_الشعبي
#لبيك_يا_رسول_الله pic.twitter.com/oxtVv79wJS
— Hasan (@Hasan_ali10) March 2, 2015
0 Comments