Inside the Jihad by Omar Nasiri

Author:Omar Nasiri
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: 2012-02-12T16:00:00+00:00

Tajikistan

One day, a man arrived at camp by himself, without a guide. We were all in the cantina when he stopped in front of the camp; we looked at each other but said nothing. Ibn Sheikh rose from his seat and walked outside, and we watched him talk to the new man for a few minutes. The man was African, Somalian or Ethiopian or Eritrean, it wasn’t clear. But I could tell from the way he moved his eyes there was something not quite right about him.

Soon, two of the other trainers went outside and spoke to him while Ibn Sheikh came back into the cantina. Ibn Sheikh warned those of us with our own Kalashnikovs to be very careful and to keep our guns nearby.

We went off to training after lunch, and by the time we returned the African was gone. We learned Abu Bakr had pinned him to the ground and put him in handcuffs, and that they had radioed for a four-by-four to take him back to Pakistan.

That night Ibn Sheikh explained that the man had come without papers. He had been in the camp once before, but he had returned to Pakistan. Now he wanted to come back. I was surprised that he had sent away a brother who had already been at the camp, and in such a dramatic fashion, so I asked about it. At first, Ibn Sheikh explained he had to be very careful, that he couldn’t allow anyone into the camp who didn’t have the right papers. But then he went on to say there was something wrong with the African, something not right in his head. It was very important to keep such people out of the camp because they could be dangerous. Once he had seen a brother go mad very suddenly from battle fatigue. One day, he picked up his Kalashnikov, walked into the mosque, and started shooting. He killed four brothers and seriously injured ten more. Ibn Sheikh had to be very careful.

Battle fatigue was real. Sometimes it made people crazy, and sometimes just careless. One day, Ibn Sheikh pointed out to me a spot in the training area at the back of the camp. He told me that just a few months before I had arrived, a group of seven Chechens were training there with mortars. One of them had accidentally picked up a booby-trapped rather than a regular one. When he put the mortar inside the cannon, it blew up instantly and killed the entire group.

At times I thought I was going crazy, too. One Friday, shortly after Ibn Sheikh arrived at the camp, I was taking a nap in front of the entrance to one of the caves when I had an incredibly vivid dream. I dreamed that I was lying in front of that very cave, and that Abu Suhail was standing over me with a handgun pointed at my forehead.

Just as he was about to pull the trigger, I woke up. It took

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