All language subtitles for Hunting.ISIS.S01E01.WEBRip.x264-ION10

- What did I know about ISIS
before I came out here?

I had heard the stories.
I knew ISIS was evil.

But you can never
really understand the

brutality that they
are capable of until

you see it with your
own eyes.

[gunshots]

Most people in America

aren't willing or able
to come over here.

[explosion]

And for them, I will carry
whatever weight I can.

- ISIS, one of the most
dangerous terrorist

groups on earth.

They've brutally
conquered territories

all across the
Middle East

and spread fear
across the globe.

Their goal is to create
a worldwide Islamic state,

and they will do anything
to achieve it.

Against the advice
of the U.S. military,

some Americans
are fighting back.

- In the truck!
In the truck!

This isn't just
their war,

it's everybody's problem.

- Hold him!
Somebody grab him!

- Some of us were not able
to just sit back

and watch this happen
on the news.

We're men of action,
not men of words over here.

- This is their story.

[speaking foreign language]

- [Bleep] hungry, man.

I think combat
changes every man.

On a small scale,

just the camaraderie,
the brotherhood you pick up.

Camaraderie is a
strong thing

that you don't find
in the civilian world

quite like you do
being active duty

in the United States
Marine Corps.

- Yes. Yes.

- [laughs]

- Maybe that
kind of drew me back,

the allure of camaraderie,
the combat,

and the chance
to make a difference.

The coalition
does not have troops

that are fighting ISIS
on the front line.

The only way
that I can get in a fight

is to embed myself
with local forces.

The YPG
is the Kurdish militia

located in northern Syria.

The Kurds are the largest
ethnic minority in the world

without their own nation.

They are the number one
driving force against ISIS

in Syria especially.

Unfortunately they're kind
of the underdogs

in every battle.

So they accept us
as western volunteers

to come fight with them.

Just buy a ticket, boom.

The next thing you know,
you're fighting bad guys.

Well, not quite.

We get smuggled by the YPG

in and out
of Iraq and Syria.

They know
what they're doing.

We just follow
their instructions.

Me personally, I fly into
the city of Sulaymaniyah.

We meet contacts
in the city of Sulaymaniyah.

Sometimes guys will stay
in a hotel for a few nights

or they'll be shuffled
straight to the safe house.

You might stay there
for one or two days.

You may stay
for two or three weeks.

There's no telling when the
next route is gonna get you in.

I'm not gonna go over
any direct routes,

and there is not
one direct route.

They take multiple routes
obviously

for the safety of our escorts
and ourselves.

You're typically going
over half a dozen checkpoints.

Some breaths to hold,
some fingers to cross,

because
if you do get caught,

you will be going to prison
in Iraq.

- Checkpoint.

- After that, you'll cross
Tigris River.

And arrive on the Syrian side
of the border.

Every western volunteer stops
at what we call the Academy

where you can expect
to spend a month.

- [speaking
foreign language]

- Learning their tactics
or lack thereof

before you deploy out
to the front line.

Mosul and Raqqa

are the two
major strongholds of ISIS.

In Syria, the YPG,

They're gonna be
the main force

going into Raqqa
to help defeat this evil.

My endgame is Raqqa.

When Raqqa falls in Syria,

I can say end of the book.

This battlefield
in the Middle East

called out to me personally

being that I have blood, sweat,
and tears on that sand before.

As a former
United States Marine,

how many of my brothers
have lost their lives

fighting these scumbags
in Iraq,

and now here they are
in Raqqa and Mosul.

- [shouting and screaming]

- They're selling women
and children into slavery.

- They're digging mass trenches
and murdering.

It's insanity.

Just things that we can't allow
to happen on this planet.

And we can stop this
if we stand together.

[gunshot]

- No money, no.

No money needed.

Life isn't all about money.

- If the moon were made of
barbecue spareribs,

would you eat it?

God knows I sure would.

Then I'd polish it off with
a nice tall Budweiser.

[all laugh]

- All the other
Western volunteers,

we have one major thing
in common,

and that's that we're all on
the frontline here together.

So, yeah, by default
we're all friends.

Having a guy like
Jeremiah on the team-

Someone else with
two deployments

and infantry training,
I wouldn't want anyone

else but someone like this
to watch my back.

[gunshot]

[gunshot]

- That's why we can't have
nice things, man.

- [chuckles]

I think I'm gonna open a
restaurant when I get back home

where you can shoot
over the heads of your guests

while they're eating.

[gunshot]

- Norway, the Norwegian.
He's a registered nurse.

So having him around
is invaluable.

- [laughs]

- They think
I'm backpacking in Asia,

which is...
sort of--sort of true.

I'm in Asia,
and I have a backpack,

which I walk around
a lot with.

I just haven't revealed
which country I've gone to.

- I honestly do feel guilty

when I have to look
my mother in the eyes

and say
I'm returning to war.

She's a complete pacifist

and she just instantly will
break down and start crying.

- When he decided
to go to Syria,

and I couldn't understand,
he said,

"Mom, all it takes
for evil to prevail

is for brave men to stand
aside and do nothing."

And it just--
it hit me like a brick wall.

He's passionate
about what he believes in,

and I believe in him.

- My dad, he gets angry.
That's his go-to emotion.

You know, I'd be kind of
an asshole to die on 'em.

I'm their only son.

- It's quiet when
they're not shooting at us.

Nothing but ducks.

- I need you
to stay low, man.

The last thing I need
is your blood on my hands.

Jarabulus is a city
that's located on the

Turkish border split in
half by the Euphrates River.

Just to our west
over the Euphrates,

is our neighborhood Daesh.

Daesh is an Arab term
for invader.

It's what we call ISIS.

They don't like
being called invaders.

They take
personal offense to it.

- Civilians or Daesh?

- I don't know.
It's hard to tell, man.

You ask a Kurd,
they'll tell you 10,000.

Our objective is to ensure
that Daesh does not

come over the bridge onto
the Kurdish lands.

The were chased over the
river about a year ago,

blew the bridge,

and they've been holding
Jarabulus since.

When ISIS came,
they started steamrolling

through very large cities
in the Middle East.

ISIS conquered cities like
Fallujah, Mosul, Raqqa,

and they moved in towards
Kobane, just east of Jarabulus.

The seige of Kobane was
almost similar to

all these cities,
except the Kurdish people,

they have this resiliency
to them.

And they were able to
hold on to Kobane by like

one or two streets.

For the next few months,
it was fought tooth and nail.

I mean to the point where
you could hear the guy next door

breaking through the wall
with a pick-axe trying to get

a hole in the wall so he
could throw a grenade in.

At the end of the day,
Kurds ended up being able to

hold onto it and push ISIS
all the way back to the other

side of the Euphrates,
right at Jarabululs.

[gunshots]

Kobane was a very
large city.

Now, one quarter of it
remains decimated.

In the long and arduous
road of defeating ISIS,

we've seen complete destruction
in Syria and Iraq.

[crowd chanting]

A lot of these people are
children over here fighting.

They don't have
the experience we have.

And if I can just teach them
one thing or two

that might save their life
down the line,

it was well worth
the trip out here, man.

But I didn't come here
simply to train guys.

I want to be training guys

that I'm gonna be
fighting with side by side,

training them in tactics and
then leading them into combat.

The way I look at Daesh

is they're kind of
like cancer, man.

The only way to treat cancer

is to eradicate
every cell of it.

Daesh needs to be treated
just the same.

Every last one of these
fuckers needs to be killed.

And I'm just waiting
for the work.

[music plays]

- I [bleep] love this song.

There's this online help thing
I just signed up for.

I thought I'd send
this lady some stuff.

Let's see what she thought.

Hello, Shantay. I'm Pete.

I run a series
of frontline medical units

stabilizing wounded people
coming out of the battle

from Mosul against ISIS.

In this past six months,

I have seen several thousand
horrifically injured people

and a few hundred dead ones.

I'm having a hard time

dealing with everything
I have seen or been through.

Also, I drink too much.

I smoke more than
a pack a day as well.

I'm a former Marine
and a child of divorce

and all of that
I never really dealt with

before coming out here.

Now it seems to have
completely caught up with me.

And then I had to pay my $45

so I could keep talking to her
after the first email.

- Mosul is Iraq's
second largest city

and has been under
ISIL control since 2014.

Iraqi forces have been trying
to encircle the city

in advance of a full-scale
offensive to recapture it.

[explosion]

[gunshots]

- Whoa, whoa,
whoa, whoa, whoa.

[woman screams]

- Okay. All right, we're gonna
lift up the leg.

- Yeah.

- Wrap it
around a splint.

Right there, perfect.

- Go. Go, go, go, go, go.

Here! Here, here, here.

- Got a six-inch bandage?

I never thought
I would be here,

that's for damn sure.

My mom called me one time

and started telling me
about this group.

I remember she was like,
they're worse than the Taliban.

ISIS.

What a group of assholes.

- Do you think that ISIS

are deliberately
targeting civilians?

- [scoffs] Yeah.

They're shooting people
with white flags.

They're shooting kids.

Last week
we had two kids in a row

that had been shot in the neck
or the head by a Daesh sniper

because
they were fleeing Mosul.

Not accidental grazing fire
or anything like that.

Proper sniper shots,
head and neck and face.

They're purposefully
trying to kill these people

who are running away.

Ahh.

This is the kind of shit
that drives me insane.

There's a family over there

using a perfectly good
wheelchair

to transport their luggage.

Hey, stop.

You? Take this.

Let me take this.

Yeah, give it to him.

Carry this.

Yeah.

God damn, dude. Yeah.

Why the fuck
am I doing this?

Man.

Nobody sees
this many fucked-up kids

and takes this many rounds
and mortars

and this level of stress
for this long

without being
completely fucked up.

[sighs]

It's so much easier
to just kill people

than to try
and keep them alive.

[gunfire]

- Oh!

[gunshots]

I was with
the U.S. Marine Corps

for three-and-a-half years.

- Reloading!

- Did two deployments
in Afghanistan,

both in Helmand.

I am Marvelous Man!

[men laugh]

[bleep] you, Taliban!

[men laugh]

I got out
and was a little bit lost.

Drank, fought my way

through most of Cambridge,
Massachusetts.

I ended up talking with one
of my friends who was out here,

and the more I talked,

I just felt like
there was more I needed to do.

I think it's a big hook
for combat vets.

They are chasing the dragon.

For me, part of it is
just chasing that dragon.

Maybe that's
a big part of it.

The sense of purpose,
I do like that.

Honk, honk, honk.
Humvee's coming in.

10 guys are screaming,
"Mr. Pete! Mr. Pete!"

In America,
I am a remote EMT.

In the battle for the Mosul,
I am a fucking doctor.

That's pretty scary stuff.

If it's pulled off properly,

I'm expecting
that the Mosul offensive

will be a pretty great
military victory.

But realistically,

this is just gonna be
a son of a bitch of a battle.

I think we could be in business
for a long time.

- Alright so the headline
of this article,

"Millennials want
to send troops to fight ISIS,

but don't want to serve.

"In a new survey,
60% of 18 to 29 year olds

"say they support U.S.
combat troops to fight ISIS,

"but 62% of those polled

say they would definitely
not join the fight."

- PJ and those guys
which fought in Iraq

against the same group
five, 10 years ago,

and they lost friends
fighting them,

and then
they look at the news

and see that group
they used to fight

has just gotten even bigger
and more dangerous.

So for them,

I guess it's like
an unfinished business.

- My first month here,

I was given what they call
a shiar.

It's basically a bolt gun.

It was just sitting
in the armory until I got here.

They asked if any of us
knew how to use it,

and I said, yeah, all day,
all day,

Give it to me.

They had dozers in plain sight
digging trenches.

The first day
I brought it out here,

just north
of this position...

I killed one Daesh.

He was a Chinese
Daesh volunteer,

and blew up a dozer
they were operating over there

trying to dig trenches for
the assault into Jarabulus.

So it denied them space
out here.

It was effective.

I mean,
we don't get mortared often.

It's been about a month
since we have got mortared.

Random Dushka fire,

we got pretty lucky
with that.

Whoever runs those
Dushka guns over there,

they're not that great.

They typically shoot
over the buildings.

We found another jacket
right here.

That 14.5.

- We've had a local sniper
move in recently.

He's taken a few pot shots.

He's within meters.

His windage
has been pretty dead on.

Just he's been shooting
about a meter low.

- He goes
back and forth, man.

He drives up and down.

His Chinese buddy
is probably the one

that I smoked with my 14.5,

so he's probably pissed off.

I had that mannequin set up
just as sniper bait.

I wanted to find out
if he had an eye scope or not.

It would appear he does

because he took four well-aimed
shots at the mannequin.

I never did catch a glimpse
of the muzzle flash,

so he's firing from indoors
somewhere I'm sure.

ISIS uses snipers
as an instrument of terror,

especially
in an urban environment

because there's just
so many areas

that they can
hide themselves in,

and you'll never know
where they're firing from.

So we figured we'd do
a little recon mission.

- Who volunteers
for this shit?

- [Bleep] idiots.

- Patrolling the streets
and the surrounding area.

- The last time we came out
to this mosque,

they were taking potshots at us
from across the river.

They were whizzing
by our head.

- It's really
just a matter of time

before someone
does get hit on post.

- Hey, PJ.

- That white truck just stopped
right behind the big hill.

I don't see people
outside the vehicle,

so maybe your friends
showed up.

- I'm helicoptering
my dick at them.

- [chuckles]

- If they did try to take let's
say our location on the bridge,

there's a good chance
they could overrun us.

I think they think
we have more than we do

when it comes to like night
vision, which we don't have,

mines, which are minimal.

- Yeah.

- Every house has probably
been looted eight times,

ten times over,
so it's all--

it's all smashed and--

- I don't know
about Mad Max-y.

I would go more for like
a zombie apocalypse.

This is a nice
militarized little building

with walls around it.

When Daesh came through,

it would seem
they set up a camp here.

- I've always tried to
put myself in the shoes

of even my enemy.

What draws them to war,
as well as me?

- A graveyard.

Daesh does that.

They understand
psychological warfare.

They understand propaganda.

They use social media very well,
very effectively.

- Daesh is really good
at selling this war.

The promise of loot,
of young brides,

the promise to go to heaven
if you die in battle.

I mean, that's why we're
looking at 20,000 volunteers

that joined Daesh
from around the world.

Maybe a thousand joined YPG.

We went into the city
straight across that bridge.

We were the first to get in
and actually recon the city,

and on the way back in, pulled
their flag off the bridge.

It raised a lot of morale
for the troops

on the lower end
of the spectrum,

but some of the command
was kind of pissed off

because we didn't tell anybody
we were going in there.

I do believe jail time
was thrown out there

as a threat if we went
back over there again.

- Yeah, baby.

- It's all about the thrill,
right?

It's still
more attractive to me

than a 9 to 5 in America.

You kinda write your own rules,
I guess, over here.

- I did not sleep great.

The neighbors
were a little bit loud.

It's like 10 in the morning
and Peshmerga

just started shooting tanks
out at Daesh.

We're getting geared up

because rounds
keep landing over here.

Good morning.

Derek Coleman.

When I first met him,

he wanted to go out
and fight

and be with Peshmerga,
do things,

and he was more than willing
to work towards it.

- I can sleep forever
if I want to.

- Derek's not a medic.

He's a really good
assistant.

- Is there a roll
of regular silk somewhere?

We just work together
very, very well.

- Are you getting
my baby blues?

- They're not--wait.

- Are they blue or green
right now?

- They're not
their ultimate blue.

- Oh.
- If you were wearing--

- It depends on
what I wear.

- If you were wearing
the tundra right now,

oh, Lord in heaven,

panties dropping
across the world.

- That's right.

We're outside Bashiqa,

which has been under ISIS
control for over two years.

- What the Peshmerga
are prepping to do

is to come in
on one side of Bashiqa,

sweep through

and destroy all the Daesh
that are in it.

So we'll move
from position to position

with the military
as they go.

Someone will get hurt,
and they'll drive

whatever vehicle
they can take back to us.

We'll stabilize them,
we'll stop all the bleeding,

we'll pack out wounds

so they will stay alive until
they get to the next place.

- There's help
from other countries here,

but they're really far back
from the frontline.

I mean, we're talking
a 20-minute drive

from where
the battle starts.

- So us being
in a forward position,

it's critical,
and it saves lives.

- This has been a big one
we've been trying to prep for,

so today we spent some time
reconning areas,

tracking routes,

but then, yeah, we did
all that and we found out

that the attack
will now take place

on the opposite of the city.

So we don't know
much about that side,

and we're really afraid that
the condition of the road there

is gonna be a big problem.

- That's what I was told.

The last thing I was told.

[explosion]

From the sounds of the bombing
we heard all last night

and all this morning,

there's probably gonna be
some injured civilians.

500 people showed up
this afternoon in this area.

They're from a village.

It's about a 10-minute walk
from here.

Half the village
is here right now.

- [cries]

- Man, who's Dad?

All right. Yeah, okay.

She looks like she's got
an ear and an eye infection.

[baby cries]
Oh, God.

Okay. Okay.

APGAR is good.

[laughs]

She's--she's strong.

There's about another 500 people
still in the village.

Apparently there's only
four Daesh in there,

so that
should put into check

the reality
of how terrifying Daesh is.

Four guys are stopping
500 people from leaving.

I mean, it's a 10-minute walk
from freedom.

[gunshots]

Hey, how close
are the ground troops

to that first village?

There's thousands of Peshmerga
pouring in right now.

Thousands.

About 5:30 in the morning
they pushed out

into the first of, I think,
five villages for the day

through constant mortars,
air strikes.

The biggest thing
killing Peshmerga

is guys bleeding out.

The problem is if they're
all the way up there,

they'll bleed out
before they get to us.

This isn't
a super great spot.

Bad guys here, armor's
moving here, we're here.

[gunshots]
- Whoo!

- Whoa, whoa,
whoa, whoa, whoa.

- Go, go, go, go, go!

- Take cover, take cover.

- Yeah!

- Let's go!

- You have people back here.

[honking]

- Stay down.

In the truck!

In the truck!
In the truck!

Let's go!

Get in!
Get in, get in, get in!

[shouting]

I got three,
maybe four in the back.

Two red at least.

Move, move, move!

[gunshots]

- I need trucks here now
to take them back.

- All right,
take my truck, man.

- What's wrong with you?

- I'm good, man.
- Okay.

- I don't think
it's accurate.

We're probably missing
one or two,

but I would say 10
if I had to guess.

- All right.

- I did three myself.

- But there's--yeah.

- This is a notebook

that keeps track
of our wounded and dead.

It's unfortunate,
because I had it on me,

so now I've been tasked
with keeping track of it.

So like right here,
this is nine DOA,

which is "dead on arrival."

One of these is a kid
who died after we treated him.

[men shouting]

- Here's one day where
we're just checking off KIA.

There's 13 right there.

Or, sorry, 23.

I guess these
can kind of remind us

as to what's happening...
as the days mold together.

- Car one.

Someone asked me
what's better,

a really busy day
or a slow day?

Obviously a slow day.

Less people
are getting screwed up.

Busy days, you just cram through
40 or 50 or 60 people.

Blood and guts
and dead people everywhere.

Slow days,
you have just enough time

to start thinking about

all the horrific shit
you just saw

and you really think about,
like, that last one.

Yeah.

When I tell my family we're
over here treating patients,

it's a good way
to look at it.

And although
I have all these feelings

and I'm upset about things,

it doesn't help anyone
at the end of the day.

- I'm not the wreck
when he calls, I'm the ear.

He has a lot to say,

and he just needs
to talk about it.

That's considerably helpful,
so that's what we do.

And then you get off and you
worry about him like crazy.

Kind of like war, you know.

When he's in the heat of battle
it's one thing,

and then when you're out of it,
then it all comes to you,

and it's a huge wash
of emotions.

- Idle minds is very bad.

You start dwelling.

Right after coming back
in 2008 from Iraq,

I got diagnosed with cancer,
and I started going through

chemo and radiation
treatments.

Worst pain
I ever had experienced,

and every day was just waking up
wishing I was dead.

I was taking
about 1,000 milligrams

of oxycodone a day
just to cope with the pain.

And when I got out the military,
I went through rehab.

I've been clean ever since.

Cancer has been
completely in remission

for over two years now.

If it comes back,

I'm not gonna go through
radiation

and chemotherapy again.

So I came over here.

If I die, I die
doing what I love to do.

- Yeah, quite a few.
Just recently the Canadian.

He was a personal friend
of mine.

I served in Dohuk with him.

He was taken out
by a suicide bomber.

He took John out.

It was their
first operation, man.

First time they went out,

and it went horribly wrong.

- No, man.
No, I'm not scared.

[gunshot]
Stay down.

They're shooting at us.

That might be the 15th shot now
since we moved in.

I've recovered a couple
of the rounds he shoots

and the jackets.

It's a 14.5 millimeter.

Very effective, easy to use,

and in the right hands
can do a lot of damage.

- You have that round
next to the door.

That's where
our squad leader,

he went into the room

and when he came out,
the sniper shot at him

and almost
took his head off.

- I'm not seeing anything.

Shit.

[gunshot]

- Was it coming
from the neighborhood?

Well, let's play with him
a little bit.

All right, copy.
I'll send.

- He knows where
we're firing from now,

so I'll change positions

to get on the other side
of that bunker over there,

fire three to five rounds
and move from the middle here.

Three to five rounds and move
north to that other bunker.

They have a headquarters house
that PJ had eyes on

when he went
across the river,

and there's a lot
of activity out there.

They've got barrels set up
out front on the porch.

Right now, we're just waiting
on a reply from them.

Come on, fucker.

I see him right now.

He's looking over here.

[gunshots]

Whoo! Yeah, baby.

Talk to me.

Show me some love.

- Once you experience combat,
the adrenaline rush

is like nothing
you'll experience anywhere.

It's got me hooked, I guess.

- That feeling
when you encounter somebody

who wants to take your life,
I get off on it.

It makes you feel powerful.

Then it goes
one of two ways.

It's a positive power you use
for the good of humanity,

volunteering your services
so somebody else could live

and somebody else
could survive.

Or it corrupts your mind,
it poisons your mind.

I could honestly sit here
and tell you

I could light an ISIS guy
on fire,

sit there and pour gasoline
on him myself

and light him ablaze
and not think anything of it.

Saying that kind of shit
like that,

people look at you
a lot different.

I mean, how can you--
you're animalistic.

And, I mean, I can admit
that's fucked up

that I say that,
but it's true.

I mean, you want the truth,
that's what it is.

[heavy metal music]

[men shouting]

- We have no idea how many ISIS
are holed up inside of there.

Are you guys aware there is
an IED right next to us?

- Yes, we're aware.

- I don't even know what I
wanna do with my life still.

There's nothing that I wouldn't
do to get back over there.

- This is Army versus Army.

Imagine Stalingrad
with GoPros.

- Oh, shit!

Oh, shit,
that was awesome!