Hunting the Caliphate - Sneak Preview

Sample from co-author Dana Pittard
Excerpted from Hunting the Caliphate
Prologue: Good Hunting—The Iron Fist of Fallujah

Early October 2014.
Abu Ali, a local ISIS commander in Fallujah, was a proud leader and fighter, and with good reason—he’d helped ISIS take over the Sunni-dominated city of Fallujah earlier that year. It was a key victory that had positioned ISIS in Fallujah along the ancient Euphrates River just sixty-nine kilometers west of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.

Abu Ali’s name was a nom de guerre, meaning “Father of Ali,” and he ruled eastern Fallujah with an iron fist. He levied harsh taxes, enforced Sharia law, and virtually enslaved Iraqi citizens. Unfortunately for him, such notoriety and status earned him a prime target position for our strike cell, which had the mission of coordinating all airstrikes in central and western Iraq.

ISIS leaders knew the United States took great care to avoid killing civilians and hitting religious structures, so they tried to use our respect for humanity to their advantage. Ali lived in a densely-populated neighborhood, with houses connected and literally on top of each other, hence he was nested amidst hundreds of innocents.

We knew where he lived; his home was one of four houses on a small compound surrounded by a five-foot mud brick wall with a large metal gate. Through the gate was a driveway that led to the side of a three-story house with a flat patio roof. All the houses on the small compound were connected and well protected by stationary and walking guards. We could not hit Abu Ali at his home with an airstrike due to our concern for civilian casualties as well as the potential for collateral damage to the homes of family members in the compound and scores of adjacent houses. Instead, we kept him under constant surveillance, and bided our time.

With a religious mosque on nearly every major street corner and intersection, Fallujah is known as the “City of Mosques.” ISIS often used the mosques as shelter for their illicit activities knowing that the religious centers were normally not targeted by airstrikes. Abu Ali felt safe traveling in the middle of Fallujah because of the large civilian population and its high number of mosques. Ali and his fellow ISIS leaders seemed to think the American military’s unwillingness to slaughter civilians and destroy their property was a weakness—yet another reason why ISIS would prevail over the West (they believed). The reality was much different….

Sample from co-author Wes Bryant
Excerpted from Hunting the Caliphate
Chapter Thirty-Three: Caged Dogs

ISIS was a brutal enemy and inhumane to the core. They needed to be obliterated beyond all trace. But the terrorist army seemed fearless. Even as we hit them with airstrikes again and again, they quite literally fought to the last man. It was uncanny.

ISIS was certainly nothing if not zealous and aggressive. From the outside looking in, their spirit seemed nearly indomitable. Of course, we’d later learn a contributing factor was that they gave their fighters opiates and cocaine before battles and threatened punishment or torture for failure or cowardice. Religious extremism coupled with mind-altering drugs and fear of torture was certainly a way to create a seemingly indomitable force.

Still, we were often surprised at the level of capability ISIS showed even in comparison to some of the best-trained Iraqi ground forces. In fact, when we came across armed and maneuvering fighters we hadn’t yet identified as friendly or enemy, the going rule became “if they move tactically sound, they’re probably ISIS.” Nonetheless, if ISIS prided themselves in being bold and aggressive, they were surely humbled once they realized what it meant to be on the receiving end of the wrath of the U.S. military.

Those of us in the BIAP Strike Cell had all sacrificed and bled with our partner forces during the previous Iraq War and the ongoing war in Afghanistan. Most of us had lost friends and brothers- or sisters-in-arms over the years, and we’d watched our partner forces suffer the same. We’d helped both the Iraqis and the Afghans fight for their homes and their countries, and we witnessed their struggle to balance the well-beings of themselves and their families with the duties and sacrifices that came with being soldiers in perpetually war-torn nations. We knew what our Iraqi forces were enduring because we’d been there. In the strike cell, when we supported the Iraqis with airstrikes we put ourselves on the ground with them….