Story highlights Wahida Mohamed has been fighting ISIS, and before that al Qaeda, for years

The self-described housewife says she's beheaded ISIS fighters and cooked their heads

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.

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