KHURMATU - At age 17, Muetazar Zamil was already an expert bomb maker and gunman for the Islamic State (IS/formerly ISIS). When he was caught last week by security forces in Khurmatu, he was driving a bomb-laden truck that his emir had promised would transport him to heaven.
In an interview with Rudaw, the teenager confessed he had in military assaults on Kurdish and Iraqi forces, and made hundreds of roadside bombs that were used to target Iraqi and Kurdish forces. Muetazar was among IS fighters who fought zealously against Peshmerga forces in the town of Sulaiman Beg.
The story of how he went from being just a religious boy in Hafriya to a radical volunteer is not atypical: he was recruited at the mosque in his village, on the outskirts of Khurmatu.
“An Islamic State emir (leader) came to our village in the hope of recruiting men for their army,” Muetazar recounted. The emir, who spoke at the mosque daily during his stay in the village, said he was looking for men who wished to become jihadists and defend the Islamic State.
The emir, who was called Abu Teiyba, “spoke to us of the paradise where ultimate happiness existed,” Muetazar recalled. “The only way to enter heaven was to battle the deviant Iraqi army and the infidel Peshmergas,” they were told.
The boy, who confessed to little real knowledge of IS at the time, decided to join. For two weeks he trained in the desert with fellow jihadis in handling machineguns and artillery.
“We were trained in concealing explosive materials, in fighting in the name of the caliph of the Islamic State and in annihilating the enemies of the IS and those who fought against it.”
Finally, the trained recruit and 80 other local men, including 20 youngsters, built a force and joined the full-scale jihad. That was when he was first promised a place in paradise.
“I was particularly promised a place in heaven by the emir,” Muetazar remembers.
He was so taken by his words, and by the zeal to serve the IS, that he escaped from home after his family locked him to prevent him from going off to join the militants. Muetazar is the only one of four brothers to become a jihadi.
After joining the IS ranks, his talent for handling explosives was noted and he was almost immediately put in a special course on making handmade explosives. He and three others were tasked only with making bombs, churning out seven dozen in two weeks’ time.
“We used the explosives to make roadside bombs, which we placed on the road between Baghdad and Khurmatu and activated through our cellphones,” Muetazar explained.
Over time, he went from bomb making to more direct combat against Iraqi and Peshmarga forces, fighting in Sulaiman Beg, where he claimed he fired only in self defense.
Then, one day, Muetazar received from the emir what was to be his final task as a jihadist.
“We send you on a mission that I wish I could do myself,” the emir told him. Muetazar was meant to enter paradise before any of the others, the emir revealed.
“I asked the emir what the task was,” Muetazar recounted. He was told to drive a truck full of explosives to Khurmatu, and was reassured by the emir of a place in paradise.
The next day, he was caught driving the truck by security forces. The teenager claimed he did not know it was loaded with 300 kilograms of TNT, and that this was his suicide mission.
Now, as he waits as a prisoner for someone from his family to contact the authorities, Muetazar says he regrets his life.
“I regret that I have done these things. I want to go back to school if I’m released.”
