Isis: Terror in Iraq Panorama

Contains scenes which some viewers may find upsetting.

'Iraq is being torn apart.'

-Come with me!

-Down here!

'Tonight, Panorama reports from the heart of the fighting.'

'The battle is against ISIS,

'a brutal jihadi group that grew out of Al-Qaeda.'

SHOUTING

'It's declared an Islamic state.

'We hear the story of ISIS from the inside.'

This is the place.

-TRANSLATION:

-They put two corpses down there

and the heads up there.

TRANSLATION: You're either with me or against me.

If you are against me, you will be killed.

-TRANSLATION:

-We would receive orders to kill a specific person.

'But could the conflict eventually spill out of the Middle East?

'We talk to a British jihadi.'

If you don't leave our Muslim brothers around the globe

and mind your own business,

then you can expect these attacks.

We are in Northern Iraq.

These are the Kurds.

They have their own military

and they're in their own fight with ISIS.

The General is talking to a tribal sheik

who's pledged loyalty to the jihadis.

"Turn over the foreign fighters in your town,"

the General says, "or there will be blood."

The General's appeal fails.

In the next town, they're Sunni Muslim.

They've joined with ISIS

to rebel against Iraq's Shia Muslim-led government.

THEY SHOUT

ISIS is a Sunni jihadi group that grew out of Al-Qaeda

and which has now eclipsed it in power and violence.

Kurd and Arab,

Sunni and Shi'ite -

Iraq is tearing itself apart along its many fault lines.

ISIS is the catalyst.

-How are you?

-How are you, mate?

'Lahur Talabani grew up a refugee from Saddam Hussein

'in Beckenham, south London.'

We were under attack from different directions last night.

You saw the fighting when it started

until five o'clock in the morning, from all directions.

'Now, the former business management student

'is head of Kurdish intelligence.'

What kind of enemy is ISIS?

A very dangerous enemy.

An enemy that has attracted forces from all over the world,

that have come here to fight.

And they are willing to die for what they believe in.

A Kurdish unit moves carefully into the small-town of Jalawla.

ISIS wants it for their new Islamic state

declared across parts of Iraq and Syria.

The Kurdish fighters, known as Peshmerga,

are trying to stop them.

THEY CALL TO EACH OTHER

The battle is over by the time we arrive.

But the Kurdish fighters believe

ISIS reinforcements are being sent to the outskirts of town.

CHATTER

OK, I think we need to be out on foot. Yeah, turn around.

Let's get into cover, here, and then we get out on foot.

Don't point...Ah, down, down, down!

GUNSHOTS

'They spot movement.'

Get behind cover!

Guys, come with me. Come with me, come with me!

Down here, down here, down here.

'Bullets come in from several different directions.'

OK, OK, OK.

Jalawla. Jalawla!

THEY SHOUT

The Peshmerga thought they had secured this place,

but they've just been told of 75 vehicles with ISIS fighters

making their way here to try to cut them off.

GUNSHOTS AND EXPLOSIONS

The battle is going backwards and forwards.

Things are still very fluid, here.

We are with half a dozen men who are trapped

with ISIS on three sides.

You need to find the most senior commander you can find

and get them to get the troops... Can you hear me?

'There is growing panic.

'They think the jihadis are coming in through the back of the building

'and know what ISIS does to prisoners.

'Everyone here expects to be shot or beheaded if captured.'

FRANTIC SHOUTING CONTINUES

'This man was shot through the leg.'

It turns out this was not the main ISIS force,

but a smaller attack.

THEY CONTINUE TO SHOUT

'The group attracts foreign jihadis from around the world.

'Here, the Peshmerga think ISIS was trying to recover

'the bodies of foreigners so they couldn't be identified.'

The bodies that we captured, none of them were Iraqis.

And then we noticed that they were trying very, very hard

not to leave anybody behind, even their dead.

The ones that they did leave behind, as many as they could,

they would destroy their faces.

They would just empty a whole magazine of bullets

into their faces and completely destroy their faces

so we wouldn't be able to recognise them.

We know there are...the numbers of Brits

that have joined the fight in Syria

with ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra

is around 400.

We believe around 200 of those guys are still amongst those forces.

Do you think there are Brits on this front line?

We haven't seen any evidence, even though, yesterday,

one of the casualties of ISIS that was killed,

he was wearing these particular gloves

which is Gold's Gym in Surrey, I think.

Very particular gloves that they sell in that gym!

So he was a foreign fighter, Arab nationality.

ISIS has swept over a third of Iraq.

Mosul, Tikrit,

the approaches to Baghdad.

They now call themselves simply The Islamic State.

The captured towns are majority Sunni.

CARS TOOT

GUNSHOTS

Some Sunni tribes helped ISIS

because of what they say is years of persecution

by Iraq's Shi'ite-led government.

Another reason a few thousand ISIS fighters

were able to put 100,000 Iraqi troops to flight...

Terror.

This is The Islamic State's own Twitter feed.

ISIS claims it executed more than 1,700 prisoners

in the town of Tikrit.

We found a deserter,

whose whole battalion fled without firing a single shot -

ISIS still 20 miles away.

-TRANSLATION:

-The morale of the soldiers was shaken.

We were serving at checkpoints.

The other troops withdrew from their areas,

even the high ranking officers and the Lieutenant Colonel left.

The Sunni troops did not want to fight other Sunnis.

The Shia soldiers had no interest in defending Sunni towns.

-TRANSLATION:

-The Army is not to blame.

It's the officials who are responsible

for putting the Army in such a situation.

We wanted to fight but when we saw what was happening,

the troops just collapsed.

Some soldiers cried.

They asked, "Why is this happening?"

Nobody was shooting at us, the enemy was nowhere near.

Some Sunnis support ISIS

but the Iraqi army's humiliation leaves millions of others trapped

under a new and terrifying regime.

We can't travel to The Islamic State to see conditions for ourselves.

They arrest Western journalists as spies.

Instead, we're heading into parts of Syria that WERE held by ISIS

to find out what life is like under their rule.

That journey starts in Turkey.

Turkey's border with Syria is a hinterland of safe houses

and supply lines.

It's been used as a rear operating base

by both the Free Syrian Army and by ISIS.

The Islamic State is no longer welcome here

and so you can find many Syrians who are in hiding from ISIS.

We are meeting an ISIS defector.

Why do you have to disguise yourself for this interview?

-TRANSLATION:

-ISIS's brutality terrifies everyone.

Not only me.

My family, my cousins, my siblings are all still there.

I fear for them all.

HE CONTINUES IN OWN LANGUAGE

'He joined ISIS as they were better armed

'and because he was attracted by the promise of an Islamic state.'

-TRANSLATION:

-In the beginning, ISIS were kind to the population

in order to attract people to their cause.

And they provided them with what they needed

in order to appeal to them quickly.

HE CONTINUES

-TRANSLATION:

-Once ISIS succeeded in attracting people,

they changed dramatically from being good

to being cruel and harsh.

You are either with me or against me.

There is nothing in between.

If you are against me, then you will be killed.

He left because he was sickened by what he witnessed.

Fearing for his own life, he knew he had to flee.

-TRANSLATION:

-My last meeting was with the emir about some business.

On his way out, I shot him three times.

I heard him scream and then I packed my rifle and ran.

I tried not to leave any traces behind me.

Then, with the help of some people on the border,

I was able to get into Turkey.

This is the road to Syria.

We're crossing into territory

that until recently would have been impossible to visit.

Half an hour over the border is the town of Azaz.

ISIS seized control here last September...

..and implemented strict sharia,

or the ISIS version of it.

-Salam.

-Salam.

The jihadis used the town's main roundabout

to carry out floggings and beheadings.

-Salamu Aleykom.

-Wa Alaykom el Salam.

'We meet a resident who saw it all.'

So this is the place?

HE BEGINS RESPONDING

TRANSLATION: They brought four men from the Free Syrian Army

and they slaughtered them here.

They put two corpses down there and the heads up there

and then left them from Friday morning prayers

till the afternoon.

Under ISIS, people were flogged for infringing the dress code

or for smoking.

These nightmarish scenes are difficult to watch.

The jihadis sentence their enemies to death.

A ghoulish crowd watched the spectacle.

TRANSLATION: It's utterly shocking.

Slaughtering a human being, to them, is like killing a bird.

THE CROWD CHEERS

Not only that but they also mutilate the corpses.

They slaughter them,

then hang the bodies up for four or five hours in the sun.

Did most people in Azaz support this practice?

Because I've seen video of people cheering,

people are happy that this is happening.

TRANSLATION: Nobody dared to say a word

because they were scared of being killed.

Anybody could be falsely accused of working for the FSA

and be slaughtered.

That's not an Islamic act, nor the actions of a human being.

The West seems to think all Syrians are extremists. No!

We are very moderate in our Islam.

ISIS could do this

because their view of Islam is actually shared by some people here?

Do you agree with that?

No, they are not popular at all.

We completely disassociate ourselves from them.

They imposed themselves on us using military force.

So what we're hearing from the gentleman is an account of how

ISIS ruled with the whip and with the sword.

And that comes from their very literal interpretation of Islam.

They wish to go back to what they see as a more pure form

of Islam, from the Prophet's time.

It may also be part of a very deliberate strategy.

What took place here was an attempt

to break society in order to re-make it.

You need a lot of violence and a lot of bloodshed to do that.

When ISIS were driven out of Azaz in March, they left behind mass graves.

We obtained video taken from the mobile phone of an ISIS fighter.

It shows those they've killed.

THEY CONVERSE IN THEIR OWN TONGUE

Their bodies are dragged along like sacks of rubbish.

-TRANSLATION:

-The Islamic State is using Islam

as a cover for their extremism.

No freedom of opinion exists.

Any legitimate Islamic practice that might threaten the goals

of the Islamic State is considered a sin.

They practice Islam in appearance only, and to control minds.

The thought that such a state could become a permanent fixture

in the Middle East horrifies Iraq's neighbours, and the wider world.

We arrive in Baghdad to find out how Iraq's government is fighting back.

Government troops are on the offensive around the capital.

Inside, the city is on edge.

Tensions between Sunni and Shia are stretched to breaking point.

The Iraqi police believe that hidden amongst the Sunni population

are more than 2,000 ISIS sleeper agents.

The general in charge of finding them tells me

they've arrested a very dangerous man.

The deputy commander of an ISIS hit squad.

-TRANSLATION:

-During this whole period we didn't do much.

We were dormant this last year. We were told to sit and wait.

But about four or five months ago,

I received orders to reorganise and activate our cell.

We would receive orders to kill a specific person.

We carried out the murder of a member of a local council.

Was there any preparation of car bombs or was it all assassinations?

No, we don't use car bombs. We conduct assassinations.

However, we did use a sticky bomb to assassinate the city councillor.

We also used a sticky bomb in the assassination

of a Sunni tribal leader.

Are you paid a salary or do you do this out of belief, these actions?

No, we don't do this for money. It's for our faith.

However, there is a salary too.

The going rate for an ISIS killer?

About 250 a month.

I told our commander that I wanted to leave the group.

He replied that nobody can quit this kind of work.

Shi'ites at prayer.

To defeat ISIS, the country will have to come together.

But people are retreating into their own communities.

After worship, men flock to join up. But not the police or army.

The Shi'ite militias.

Shield of the Message is one of those militias.

Shi'ites have been killed in large numbers by ISIS.

This is the response.

These are the true believers.

Unlike the Iraqi Army, these men will stand and fight.

They take us to the nearest front line

half an hour out of Baghdad on the road to Fallujah.

This is where ISIS will have to be stopped.

THEY CHANT

No-one can doubt their fervour.

But they're volunteers.

Labourers, businessmen and taxi drivers.

These men are entrusted with the western defence of the capital.

They say they fight for the state

but they speak the language of jihad.

-TRANSLATION:

-We are committed to God,

his prophet and his family, in death or in victory.

With the help of God, let the rats hear us.

Let ISIS hear us.

We are not the ones who fled from Mosul. We are here to die.

We don't want salaries. We don't want anything.

We came here for martyrdom. We came here for martyrdom.

CHANTING RESUMES

They insist they will fight for nation, not sect.

But to Sunnis, nothing's more frightening

than a Shi'ite militia on the march.

CHANTING CONTINUES

The coffin is for a Sunni man.

He went to hospital with a cousin.

Both were abducted right under the noses of the security forces.

His family blame a Shi'ite militia.

-TRANSLATION:

-He told me that he was scared of going to hospital.

He said, "You stay here and work

"because I'm worried something might happen."

That's what he said.

When we tried to call them at around two o'clock,

their mobiles were switched off.

We went to find them and we found them in Al-Hurya.

They'd been killed.

No-one, including the police, can say anything to them.

No-one can hold them to account.

We're even afraid of them in the streets.

But they are not, yet, turning to ISIS.

-TRANSLATION:

-ISIS doesn't even represent

10% of the revolutionaries.

If you give them their rights, this whole thing would be over.

Even a goat herder knows this.

The Sunnis here don't want to rebel against Baghdad, but they feel

they can't turn to the government or to the police for help.

So they're stuck, between the Shi'ite militias on the one hand,

and the jihadis of the Islamic State on the other.

The Prime Minister they so mistrust, Nouri al-Maliki,

trying to rally the nation.

He is accused of running a sectarian government, of tolerating

death squads, of keeping money and power for the Shia.

He carries a lot of the blame.

Maliki created a Shia-dominated state in which Sunni were marginalised.

There are villages outside Fallujah, Sunni villages,

where most of the young men are in jail.

Many of them confess to capital crimes, under torture.

Sometimes they are on death row for crimes

that somebody else has already been executed for.

So no wonder that if you're a Sunni young man from these places,

joining ISIS doesn't seem that much more dangerous than staying at home.

If Prime Minister Maliki can't gain the Sunnis' confidence

and persuade them to fight the jihadis,

a third of the country will belong to this man.

Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, leader of ISIS.

The new Caliph, as he calls himself,

takes Friday prayers at Mosul's Grand Mosque.

To make way for Baghdadi, ISIS killed the existing Imam,

according to the UN, as well as a dozen other clerics.

All refused to swear allegiance to the Islamic State.

This sermon seems to promise global jihad.

The "Caliph" says all Muslims should come to his new empire.

It's thought that hundreds of young Britons have already joined ISIS.

I spoke to one man on Skype

who says he's a British jihadist with ISIS in Syria.

He calls himself Abu Summayyah al Britaani,

and says he's on the waiting list to be a suicide bomber.

Everybody's got their name on the list

and everybody is forcing the Emir to put their name, to push it up,

and everybody wants to fight for the sake of Allah.

He denies that he and other foreigners in ISIS

are being trained to carry out attacks back home.

They've even destroyed their passports.

But that could change

if the West intervenes against the Islamic State.

If the British Government commits terror against our people,

is unjust towards our people, kills and murders and rapes our people,

then you can expect attacks on your soil.

If you don't leave our Muslim brothers around the globe, and

mind your own business, and support our enemies against us, then you can

expect these attacks, and so can America and so can any other country.

Western countries could try to avoid provoking ISIS

and the young Muslims it's trained for martyrdom.

But the Islamic State is determined to grow.

A clash may be inevitable,

says one of the world's leading experts on radicalisation.

When we look at the overall aspirations of ISIS, it wants to take

over the whole world and subjugate it to its version of political Islam.

And so the real question we need to ask ourselves is that

unfortunately at one stage or another we are going to be

drawn into a confrontation with them.

The issue is how long is that event horizon?

Is it 12 months, five years, ten years, 50 years?

But at one point or another we will have to confront them.

The West faces a decision -

whether to confront the new Caliphate or leave it to grow.

There are risks either way.

For now, the war against ISIS remains in the Middle East.

How long will it stay there?