Physinews; SHIRQAT, Iraq (CNN) -- "Shut up and stay
still," the woman in black fatigues and a black
headscarf snapped over her shoulder at the
armed men behind her as she sat down for an
interview.
Immediately they went quiet, each adjusting
his weapon and standing up straight as if he'd
been called to attention.
This is a woman who commands respect, I
thought. She keeps a Beretta 9-millimeter
pistol in a holster under her left arm. The area
around the trigger was silver where the paint
had worn off.
The woman in question, 39-year-old Wahida
Mohamed -- better known as Um Hanadi --
leads a force of around 70 men in the area of
Shirqat, a town 50 miles (80 kilometers) south
of Mosul, Iraq.
She and her men, part of a tribal militia,
recently helped government forces drive ISIS
out of the town.
In the man's world that is rural Iraq, female
fighters are a rarity.
'More wanted than the Prime Minister'
Um Hanadi is not new to this.
"I began fighting the terrorists in 2004,
working with Iraqi security forces and the
coalition," she says. As a result, she attracted
the wrath of what eventually became al Qaeda
in Mesopotamia, which later morphed into
ISIS.
"I received threats from the top leadership of
ISIS, including from Abu Bakr (al-Baghdadi)
himself," she says, referring to ISIS's self-
declared caliph.
"But I refused."
"I'm at the top of their most wanted list," she
brags, "even more than the Prime Minister."
Um Hanadi ticks off the times they planted car
bombs outside her home. "2006, 2009, 2010,
three car bombs in 2013 and in 2014."
Along the way, her first husband was killed in
action. She remarried, but ISIS killed her
second husband earlier this year. ISIS also
killed her father and three brothers. They also
killed, she added, her sheep, her dogs and her
birds.
She narrowly escaped death as well.
"Six times they tried to assassinate me," she
says. "I have shrapnel in my head and legs,
and my ribs were broken."
She pulled back her headscarf to show her
scars.
"But all that didn't stop me from fighting," she
said.
Um Hanadi claims to have led her men in
multiple battles against ISIS.
General Jamaa
Anad, the commander of ground forces in her
native Salahuddin province, told me they had
provided her group with vehicles and
weapons.
General Anad, a short, compact, no-nonsense
man of few words, simply says: "She lost her
brothers and husbands as martyrs."
'Check out my Facebook page'
After listing all the attacks against her, and all
the loved ones lost to ISIS, Um Hanadi said: "I
fought them. I beheaded them. I cooked their
heads, I burned their bodies."
She made no excuses, nor attempted to
rationalize this. It was delivered as a boast,
not a confession.
"This is all documented," she said. "You can
see it on my Facebook page."
So we checked. Among many pictures of her
with her dead husbands, fighters and
generals, there was a photo of her in the same
black combat fatigues and headscarf holding
what appeared to be a freshly severed head.
Another showed two severed heads in a
cooking pot. In a third photograph, she is
standing among partially-burned corpses. It's
impossible to verify whether the photos are
authentic or Photoshopped, but we got the
point.
Um Hanadi describes herself as a "rabat
manzal" -- a housewife. She denied media
reports she was a hairdresser, although a
photo on her Facebook page shows her
without a headscarf, in what appears to be a
hair salon. She has two daughters, aged 22
and 20. They are trained and ready to fight,
she says, but are busy at the moment taking
care of their children.
When we finished the interview, Um Hanadi's
entourage prepared to board their pickup
trucks. I walked up to one of the trucks, where
three men sat in the front seat. One pulled out
a hand grenade.
"This is for Daesh," he said, using the
derogatory term for ISIS.
"And so is this -- to cut off their heads," said
the driver, pulling a long machete off the
dashboard and brandishing it uncomfortably
close to my face.
still," the woman in black fatigues and a black
headscarf snapped over her shoulder at the
armed men behind her as she sat down for an
interview.
Immediately they went quiet, each adjusting
his weapon and standing up straight as if he'd
been called to attention.
This is a woman who commands respect, I
thought. She keeps a Beretta 9-millimeter
pistol in a holster under her left arm. The area
around the trigger was silver where the paint
had worn off.
The woman in question, 39-year-old Wahida
Mohamed -- better known as Um Hanadi --
leads a force of around 70 men in the area of
Shirqat, a town 50 miles (80 kilometers) south
of Mosul, Iraq.
She and her men, part of a tribal militia,
recently helped government forces drive ISIS
out of the town.
In the man's world that is rural Iraq, female
fighters are a rarity.
'More wanted than the Prime Minister'
Um Hanadi is not new to this.
"I began fighting the terrorists in 2004,
working with Iraqi security forces and the
coalition," she says. As a result, she attracted
the wrath of what eventually became al Qaeda
in Mesopotamia, which later morphed into
ISIS.
"I received threats from the top leadership of
ISIS, including from Abu Bakr (al-Baghdadi)
himself," she says, referring to ISIS's self-
declared caliph.
"But I refused."
"I'm at the top of their most wanted list," she
brags, "even more than the Prime Minister."
Um Hanadi ticks off the times they planted car
bombs outside her home. "2006, 2009, 2010,
three car bombs in 2013 and in 2014."
Along the way, her first husband was killed in
action. She remarried, but ISIS killed her
second husband earlier this year. ISIS also
killed her father and three brothers. They also
killed, she added, her sheep, her dogs and her
birds.
She narrowly escaped death as well.
"Six times they tried to assassinate me," she
says. "I have shrapnel in my head and legs,
and my ribs were broken."
She pulled back her headscarf to show her
scars.
"But all that didn't stop me from fighting," she
said.
Um Hanadi claims to have led her men in
multiple battles against ISIS.
General Jamaa
Anad, the commander of ground forces in her
native Salahuddin province, told me they had
provided her group with vehicles and
weapons.
General Anad, a short, compact, no-nonsense
man of few words, simply says: "She lost her
brothers and husbands as martyrs."
'Check out my Facebook page'
After listing all the attacks against her, and all
the loved ones lost to ISIS, Um Hanadi said: "I
fought them. I beheaded them. I cooked their
heads, I burned their bodies."
She made no excuses, nor attempted to
rationalize this. It was delivered as a boast,
not a confession.
"This is all documented," she said. "You can
see it on my Facebook page."
So we checked. Among many pictures of her
with her dead husbands, fighters and
generals, there was a photo of her in the same
black combat fatigues and headscarf holding
what appeared to be a freshly severed head.
Another showed two severed heads in a
cooking pot. In a third photograph, she is
standing among partially-burned corpses. It's
impossible to verify whether the photos are
authentic or Photoshopped, but we got the
point.
Um Hanadi describes herself as a "rabat
manzal" -- a housewife. She denied media
reports she was a hairdresser, although a
photo on her Facebook page shows her
without a headscarf, in what appears to be a
hair salon. She has two daughters, aged 22
and 20. They are trained and ready to fight,
she says, but are busy at the moment taking
care of their children.
When we finished the interview, Um Hanadi's
entourage prepared to board their pickup
trucks. I walked up to one of the trucks, where
three men sat in the front seat. One pulled out
a hand grenade.
"This is for Daesh," he said, using the
derogatory term for ISIS.
"And so is this -- to cut off their heads," said
the driver, pulling a long machete off the
dashboard and brandishing it uncomfortably
close to my face.
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