His catchphrase is "illa tahin” which means he will pulverize the Islamic State until nothing but “flour” remains. Since the Iraqi security forces collapsed in June, the country has turned to rebel fighters to defend them.
Abu Azrael (Father of the Angel of Death) has become a kind of cult figure of resistance towards ISIS in the heart of Iraq. Just as ISIS uses social media to promote fear, Azrael and his are using it effectively to propagate his own presence as a counter to ISIS. This Facebook page has almost 400,000 “likes” and seems to go along with other reports that he is a former university lecturer.
They state his interests are martial arts and bodybuilding, it is purported that he won the Iraq tae kwon do championship, a great recipe for a hero.
The complexities of which rebel groups are good and which are “bad” cannot be verified by even the most staunch middle eastern scholars, as it has turned into quite a mess (free for all) since U.S. forces left. What is known, is that the group Abu Azrael belongs to is responding to the ISIS butchers, and many people in the country are behind them.
"I swear to God, I am not merciful to them," he tells AFP at the Speicher military base near Tikrit, which Iraqi groups are currently battling to retake. "I never have any leniency for them.”
He is viewed as a counter to the Islamic State’s campaigns of fear, something the groups who have been frightened by them can get behind, something that gives them strength.
It will most likely be a prolonged mess in Iraq for years to come, with roaming groups acting as jury and executioner. Hopefully these groups can find a way to work together down the road.
"I am probably in the spotlight because Almighty God made me successful in killing a number of dirty men, but all of the (fighters) are heroes,"
"I consider myself 100 percent a martyr, God willing," he said. "I am ready for death, now and later."
He recalled seeing ISIS “butchering our sons with axes” reports Yahoo News.
“Abu Azrael described himself as a "simple man" with "a simple family -- four girls and a boy," and said there is more to him than violence.
"You see me go to school to drop off my children and I am peaceful. But I show another face to them (IS)," he said.
"I don't differentiate between Sunnis and Shiites," he said. "We are all one country and one Iraq."
