A popular mobilization is occurring in Iraq in response to the “righteous jihad” fatwa issued three days after the Islamic State (IS) occupied Mosul on July 10.
Saad Hamid is among the 200 individuals who volunteered to help the Iraqi army stop the IS advance. Enlisted in a one-month training program in al-Kafal village, south of Babylon, he was being trained to use weapons and in combat techniques before he was expected to join his peers on the battlefield.