A Cold Day in Mosul by Isaac Hooke

Author:Isaac Hooke [Hooke, Isaac]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Mystery; Thriller & Suspense, Thrillers & Suspense, Military, Spies & Politics, Assassinations, Conspiracies, Espionage, Political, Terrorism, Thrillers
Amazon: B010PU6D5U
Published: 2015-06-30T05:00:00+00:00

eighteen

Ethan and the others had gathered around Sam beneath the date palms in the courtyard. The laptop was open in front of her, and the screen faced the group.

"Up until early this year we ignored the Al Ba'aj district in western Iraq," Sam said. "A Sunni tribal area, it's a wide, mostly barren tract of land, starting one hundred and fifty kilometers to the southwest of Mosul. The tribes there have always operated outside of government rule, even during Saddam's reign. We flew surveillance drones over it now and again, but for the most part we left the region alone. There just wasn't anything of interest. That is, until a random drone flight detected a convoy traveling at night between two villages. We started flying more Predators over the region, and we equipped them with hellfires.

"About two months into the flyovers, several males were spotted loading into cars after dark outside a tiny village close to the Syrian border. As the three-car convoy left the village, the Predator was given the go ahead to release its payload. The strike was successful, and we thought nothing of it until the next day, when the sudden upswing in radio and network chatter told us we'd hit someone important. You'll never guess who: none other than Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, caliph of Islamic State. The airstrike had seriously wounded him, apparently. While we have no idea where he's holed up, he's out of the picture for the foreseeable future. Maybe forever. The Shura council has already appointed another man to serve as acting leader."

She pressed a key on the laptop. A surveillance photo came up, revealing a rather ordinary-looking individual. He carried a stack of books and binders in one arm, and was walking away from what appeared to be a school. He had a gray beard, though his mustache was still black; he wore a blazer, slacks, and white T-shirt.

"This is the earliest known picture of Haji Iman, otherwise known as Abu Alaa Afri," she said. "Former physics teacher from Tal Afar." A city northwest of Mosul. "Now acting caliph of the Islamic State."

"A physics teacher?" William said in disbelief. "How does one go from theorizing about the forces of nature to peddling terror?"

"You were embedded with the jihadists. You know how their minds work. It begins as a grand adventure, going off to war for your religion. You think you're doing the right thing, because you're surrounded by other like-minded individuals similarly blinded by zeal. Eventually, if you survive long enough, that zeal becomes something else: hatred for anyone who doesn't believe what you do.

"Afri wasn't too different. Under the auspices of a jihadi scholar, it is believed he traveled to Afghanistan in 1998 to join Bin Laden. He rose through the ranks, eventually becoming a senior member of Al Qaeda in 2004.

"As you may or may not know, the key to power in any radical sect is how good your rhetoric is. And Afri was, and is, very good at it.

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