These are tough times for the Iraqi resistance. Violence is down, fighters are scarce, and the public has turned against them. Abu Abdul Aziz is one of just 35 fighters in the Front of Jihad and Change—a far cry from the 750 he fought alongside in 2005—but the insurgency is alive and well, he tells NPR. “We will keep fighting,” he vows, “until the last American has left.”
“I have killed many Americans,” Aziz says. “When I kill them, I feel happy, like victory is coming.” He believes the Americans are “here to harm us”—his own family was killed in a US airstrike—and won’t leave unless forced out. He says the "honorable resistance" will continue for generations if it must. “See this American soldier,” he tells his children. “He invaded you. These people are your enemy.” (More Iraq stories.)