Iraq digs in for the Battle of Baghdad: A gripping dispatch from a city braced for bloody onslaught by ISIS jihadists

Weary Iraqi soldiers were yesterday returning from gruelling 12-hour battle in Balad against militant fighters

Spoke of how 'crazy and ruthless' soldiers of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) were difficult to force back

Jihadists are clinging to their newly-won territory in Iraq while creeper closer to the capital

Baghdad residents - who have been enlisted in the military by the thousands - remain determined to hold the capital



I watched yesterday as convoys of exhausted Iraqi soldiers returned from the battle to save Baghdad from a ruthless onslaught by fanatical jihadist fighters.



The weary men told shocking stories of vicious, hand-to-hand fighting with ISIS Muslim militia – and of innocent civilians caught in the crossfire.



ISIS - the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria - have swept mercilessly through Iraq and now have the capital in the grip of a vicious pincer movement.

Scroll down for video

Battle weary: Convoys of exhausted soldiers were last night returning from a a 12-hour fight in Balad

By last night, they had reached the town of Balad, just 55 miles north of Baghdad, and the battle rages there, as Iraq’s leaders bid to save the capital from being overrun, as many other Iraqi cities already have.



As the battle for Baghdad loomed, the U.S. yesterday ordered aircraft carrier George H W Bush to move to the Persian Gulf for possible air strikes against the militants, while Iranian president Hassan Rouhani suggested the two traditional enemies may work together to defend Iraq, saying: ‘When the U.S. takes action against [the militants], then one can think about cooperation.’

At a checkpoint near his base at Camp Taji on the Baghdad-Samarra Highway, Lt Omar al-Saadi shouted down to me yesterday. ‘Things are very bad up there but we are ready for it. This is our country and our people. We can defeat the terrorists,’ he said.



Several armoured Jeeps and Hummers donated by the American military were being towed, disabled in fire-fights with jihadists who have seized tanks, weapons and even Hummers as their spoils of war in Mosul and Tikrit.



Motorists hooted their horns and waved in support at the young soldiers returning to the 9th Armoured Division’s base at Taji.

Shocking: The Iraqi forces told how 'crazy' Jihadists would stop at nothing to hold on to their recent gains

Volunteers: Thousands of Iraqi men in Baghdad queued for hours to sign up to fight the ISIS militants

‘We have better equipment and training than the jihadists but they are crazy and ruthless’, said soldier Khalid Byati. ‘They don’t care about dying so they have no rules, they don’t just want to take the town, they want to destroy us and all the civilians. These men have no mercy.’



The regular army, shamed by recent reports of hundreds of troops in Mosul city abandoning their posts, is putting on a convincing show of patriotism and professionalism in an all-out bid to save Baghdad.



Here in the city its five million war-battered residents, all but engulfed by the aftershock of seeing major cities fall into ISIS hands last week, are finally showing signs of an organised fightback, though many international analysts believe it may be too late.



Tens of thousands of volunteers, many of them veterans of Iraq’s numerous wars, are flooding into the national army’s recruiting centre and signing up for an intensive two weeks in training camp before heading into conflict with the militants.

Takeover: ISIS militants have set up their black flag above towns and cities across the north and west of Iraq

Elderly Abdul Naby, a construction worker dressed in traditional dish-dash, waited in line at the al-Muthanna Camp in Mansur suburb. Like many others, he was giving up his Saturday to stand in the heat and dust of the old airport to file his details in a disused prefab office hastily set up to register the recruits. Mr Naby stated that he was answering a call to fight to the death.

‘Our religious leader Ali al-Sistani has called on all of us to protect Baghdad,’ he said. ‘I am strong and fit and proud to answer the call along with so many of my fellow countrymen. Terrorists will never rule our land.’

As he spoke, more men young and old were dropped off by cars and taxis at the busy road junction where they introduced themselves to soldiers on duty and then took the steep road down from the highway to report for service.

SADDAM'S DAUGHTER BACKS ISIS

The eldest daughter of fallen dictator Saddam Hussein has praised ISIS’s bloody attacks in Iraq, saying she is happy to see their ‘victories’.

Raghad Hussein, 47, (below) who lives in luxurious exile in Jordan’s capital Amman, has said the fighters are aided by former military chiefs and soldiers who supported the Ba’ath party that lay behind her father’s regime.



In posts in Arabic on her Facebook page, Miss Hussein appears to address her father, saying: ‘Your men and women have answered the country’s call, and they are coming to Baghdad.’ In a post yesterday, she said: ‘O Baghdad, we are returning with God’s help.’ Her comments come as ISIS overran villages in the province of Diyala, 50 miles north-west of Baghdad.

She also spoke to the Arabic Al-Quds newspaper, saying: ‘I am happy to see all these victories... Some day I will come back to the rebel cities and read Al-Fatiha [a Koran chapter] over my father’s soul.’

The current Iraqi government has charged Miss Hussein with offences including the financing of terrorist groups – crimes that could lead to the death penalty.

The army’s mission: To prevent the total collapse of an Iraq still tottering from the American-British invasion which removed their despised dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003 but which also dismantled its proud military, disenfranchised its Sunni Muslim minority, and fomented deep sectarian rifts.

The vacuum created by America’s military departure in 2011 has been filled by a jihadist movement more deadly than Al Qaeda itself.



ISIS leader Abu Mohammed al-Adnani has declared he wants to convert Iraq and neighbouring Syria to Muslim states under Sharia law.

He told his followers in a video last week: ‘Continue your march as the battle is not yet raging in Baghdad. We have a score to settle there.’



As the estimated 7,000 jihadists carry out a ruthless killing spree with horrific reports of beheadings, summary executions and even crucifixions in the towns they have overthrown, they have been joined enthusiastically by Sunni Muslims.



Iraq government forces have in the meantime been joined by rogue militias such as the Mahdi Army, led by Sheikh Moqtada al-Sadr, and its affiliated group of murderous thugs, the Asaeab Ahl al-Haq, which means League of the Righteousness.

And there were reports last night that some British Shia Muslims are heading to Iraq to fight against ISIS.



Political analysts predict that this factionalism spells the end of Iraq as a cohesive country, and that if Baghdad falls the subsequent division of Iraq will be even more tragic than the West’s invasion.



But that might be to underestimate the tenacity of the people of Baghdad. They found a way to accommodate Saddam Hussein’s repressive regime, building decent lives and businesses around it.



They withstood an unwarranted invasion which saw definitive insults inflicted on them. At the heavily-armed chicane leading into the fortified Green Zone created for America’s safety and comfort in the centre of their city, they tolerated a sign stating: ‘If You Enter Here You Will Be Shot.’



Yesterday, while a newly-imposed 10pm to 6am curfew outlasted dawn over the city of minarets, there was an obvious increase in military checkpoints but otherwise it was business as usual.



I sensed that, with its cruel history, Baghdad had seen too much to be able to respond in any other way.



Hapless President Nouri al-Maliki, roundly blamed for his government’s lack of direction and inability to pinpoint areas of potential trouble, has failed to bring home a vote to declare a state of emergency.



Insurgency regularly results in explosions in some troubled suburbs where Sunni and Shia still clash.



There were two such explosions last week. But the good people of Baghdad are not gearing up to leave.



At our hotel, the manager was bemused at the idea of an exit plan. ‘This is a safe place,’ he said.

