Iraq 2015: nowt is simple in this conflict

[AdamG]

Temporary separate thread for maximum visibility.

Speicher Base (Iraq) (AFP) - Abu Azrael -- Father of the Angel of Death -- is the black-bearded, blade-wielding embodiment of the retribution many Iraqis want against brutal jihadists who seized swathes of their country.

A Facebook page dedicated to the fighter in the Imam Ali Brigades Shiite militia lists him as a "public figure" and has been "liked" more than 280,000 times.

"I swear to God, I am not merciful to them," Abu Azrael, whose real name is Ayyub Faleh al-Rubaie, told AFP at the Speicher military base near Tikrit, a city that Iraqi forces and allied paramilitaries are battling to retake.

"I never have any leniency for them," he said, referring to IS members.

Abu Azrael listed half a dozen places where he took part in battles against IS, but said he was a fighter before the current conflict began.

He said he gained military experience with the Mahdi Army -- Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's militia that battled US forces in Iraq -- and also fought in the Damascus area against rebels seeking to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

http://news.yahoo.com/abu-azrael-ira...133311351.html

Short video http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=079_1426548102

[Bob's World]

And you think this is a good thing??

If this was a Sunni cult figure rising up against those exploiting popular grievance with extremist perspectives, yes. But the emergence of a Shia hero is a whole new brand of escalatory trouble.