Volunteer policemen hope to retake Mosul from ISIS
MOSUL, Iraq - These policemen have volunteered to fight ISIS.
They're nearly all from Mosul - Iraq's second biggest city - captured by ISIS in June.
"ISIS doesn't frighten us," said Edo Hassan Edo, a police sergeant from a village outside Mosul. "Our homes are gone and our holy sites are destroyed. We have nothing left to lose."
They're determined - but most have no experience fighting a war.
In contrast, the ISIS fighters they plan to take on are battle hardened and fanatical.
Iraq's Vice President Osama al-Nujaifi came to rally the troops, promising guns and training from Baghdad, but so far, they haven't arrived.
"I will fight with them when they start to fight," al-Nujaifi said.
Asked if he was going to go into Mosul with them, al-Nujaifi replied: "Yes, myself."
Asked if he would be carrying a gun, he replied: "Yes, of course."
A mile away, we found more men signing up - most of them Sunni Muslims - which is crucial.
Mosul is a mainly Sunni Muslim city -- and the ISIS militants were welcomed by some locals who were angry with Iraq's government, which is dominated by Shiite Muslims.
The vice-president told us only a Sunni-led fighting force can win hearts and minds in Mosul.
"After ISIS destroy our mosque and kill people," said al-Nujairi, "many people, majority of Mosul people against them now."
The reason that policemen are being used is that the Iraqi military ran away when ISIS seized Mosul in June, despite billions of dollars in American equipment and training. The vice-president told us the policemen are needed for the urgent task of re-taking Mosul, but that what Iraq really needs is a new army.
