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Um Qusay, dressed in a black, sequined abaya and hijab, takes a slow drag on her cigarette as she recalls the execution of Iraqi men in her village who tried to assassinate their president. A Rambo-esque former US marine readies himself with a swig of tequila before sharing his violent tale.

Once Upon a Time in Iraq, a new documentary series airing on BBC Two from tonight, conveys the complex road to the Iraq war through the eyes of civilians, journalists and soldiers, 17 years on from an invasion that has fractured the world.

I didnt want some big Iraq story that we cant connect to, the director, James Bluemel, tells me over Zoom. Bluemel is best known for his Bafta-winning series on the Syrian refugee crisis, Exodus: Our Journey To Europe, which saw escapees given cameras to document their perilous crossings. I didnt want to interview decision-makers or men in suits thats been done before. I wanted to create a bridgeway of empathy to people you wouldnt normally hear from.

Bluemels documentary is an entry point to the stories as well as the psyches of the participants, where moments of silence carry as much drama as their testimonies. This is starkly honest, harrowing and essential viewing. We see remorse in the heavy looks of former US soldiers. We are shown how Saddam Hussein was feared and admired for his charisma and the stability he brought. One man even calls him a style icon. Iraq is full of contradictions, says Bluemel. It had to be told by the people in their own way and they offer far more than one narrative.

Waleed Nesyif was 18 and a member of the only heavy metal band in Iraq when George W Bush began the invasion on his country. As a teen infatuated with the fast food and democracy of the West, Nesyif welcomed it. It was important to be honest in this documentary, he says. I was not anti-invasion. Dare I say it, I was excited. The documentary process reminded me of who I used to be. James and his team put me at total ease, so I could bring my two different selves to the story. My father told me, A true friend is the mirror with which you see yourself through, and thats what this is.

The darkened studio where participants are interviewed serves, at times, as a confession booth. The former US colonel Nate Sassaman first appears as a likeable soldier who entered Iraq with a wish to build bridges with local sheikhs, but later reveals his Achillean thirst for retribution following the loss of one of his officers in an insurgent attack. Complicated people are what Bluemel is interested in: When you feel conflicted feelings about Sassaman, its a good thing, because thats how he feels about himself.

Building trust from the participants is crucial to the nuance and power of the series, with many of the voices featured relaying their experiences for the first time. This is the case for Alaa, who was a 12-year-old schoolgirl on her way home from an exam when she was struck with shrapnel from one of the first roadside bombs planted by insurgents intended for American forces. She lost her eye, and her face was scarred for life.

Moments of light relief are rare in this documentary, but when they do come they are mainly provided by Nesyif. One scene shows him taking part, along with other young Iraqis, in a live television link-up with a group of young Americans. They discuss Metallica, the Backstreet Boys and war. I thought my English sounded so great, but I actually sound like Borat! he jokes. This is the one true Iraqi thing left in me: when someone dies, you make a joke, when a bomb goes off you make a joke. Its the only way to go on, he laughs. Its a laugh that we hear throughout the series, which skims off the chilling scenes he relates. We watch as he witnesses his country driven not towards the land of dreams he hoped for after a lifetime under a dictators regime, but towards years of chaos, sectarian violence and extremism.

We sowed the seeds of Isis in 2003. We did, gasps Sassaman in the opening episode, before breaking down. Bluemel says the genesis of the idea for the series was indeed seeded in the current moment, and Europes reaction to the refugee crisis. I was angry at the far right for blaming refugees and angry seeing the rise of nationalism in Europe. There is no sense of collective responsibility for destabilising the Middle East and for the rise of extreme Islamic terrorism. Our fingerprints are all over this.

It is Bluemels hope that the series will make people sit up and listen, and help them connect and empathise with the voices featured. Nesyif agrees. Empathy is what we lack the most right now. This documentary offers the context that the world is missing. Ever since the demonisation of Iraq started, Saddam Hussein has been the cover story. [But] no one is pure evil and no one is pure good. The human face of this documentary is its greatest achievement.

Once Upon a Time in Iraq begins tonight, 9pm on BBC Two. The accompanying book is out on 16 July

See more here:
'No one is pure evil': the documentary bringing a human face to the Iraq war - The Guardian

Numerous human remains were recently uncovered from a suspected mass grave in the northern Iraqi village of Humeydat, part of the territory formerly controlled by Islamic State militants.

Local officials in late June found the grave, which extended over hundreds of meters, filled with bones, skulls, clothing and shoes. The remains are believed to be those of Shiite prisoners who were executed in June 2014 after ISIS gained control of Mosul, though an investigation is needed to confirm.

An estimated 1,500 prisoners, both Shiite and Sunni, from Badoush were taken to the desert and separated, according to a Human Rights Watch investigation. ISIS allegedly executed 600 prisoners in this area, most of whom were Shiite.

Experts performed an initial investigation, but further excavation has been halted due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, officials told The Associated Press. The Iraqi government task force that investigated mass graves prior to the pandemic had ongoing issues including understaffing and inadequate resources to store and identify remains, according to a November 2018 report from the United Nations.

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Mass grave uncovered in former ISIS territory of northern Iraq - Military Times

If you think Operation Inherent Resolve is a mission name that makes no sense, you're not alone. The U.S. military operation against ISIS in Iraq and Syria was supposed to have a different name altogether. The Pentagon initially rejected OIR and only accepted it as a placeholder. Somehow it stuck, and that's what we're left with.

Strange, silly and absurd names shouldn't be the standard for military operations. Or at least so said Winston Churchill back in 1943. In a WWII memo on the subject of mission names, Churchill said, "Do not suggest the character of the operation or disparage it in any way, and do not enable some widow or some mother to say her son was killed in an operation called 'Bunnyhug' or 'Ballyhoo.'"

It seems that the military isn't exactly following Churchill's recommendation. There's rarely a public explanation about mission names, but that doesn't make them any more questionable. Here are a few of the most memorable mission names.

Tigers are pretty amazing in their own right, but what would be more American than having an All-American tiger? That's a question the brass asked themselves, apparently, in 2003, when they settled on this mission name during a November 2003 Iraq War mission. Operation All-American Tiger's objective was to search and clear farms and villages around the Euphrates River in the Northern Iraqi town of Al-Qaim. Service members detained twelve people as a result, including a few who were on a "Most Wanted" list.

While it's fun to think about what the military was considering when creating codenames for missions, this one is actually pretty easy to figure out. The nickname for the 82nd Airborne Division is "All American." The Tiger Squadron of the 3rd Armored Cav assisted the 82nd on this mission.

Specifically, it was the 1st Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment from the 82nd who worked with the Tigers. The 504th even have their own absurd nickname The Devils in Baggy Pants taken from a diary entry of a Wehrmacht officer in WWII.

Doesn't this sound like a mission from the 1980s? It feels decidedly vintage, but Operation Beastmaster actually took place in 2006. OB cleared three neighborhoods in the Baghdad suburb of Ghazaliya, which itself was subject to a codename, albeit one that was far easier understood. Service members in IED Alley East, as Ghazaliya was known, worked together with the Iraqi Army to uncover weapons caches and a deposit of roadside bomb-creating supplies and tools. Operation Beastmaster also captured one high-ranking (and still unnamed) official, and the Army counted it as a complete win.

In the summer of 2004, U.S. service members went on a counter-insurgency raid in Najaf, Iraq, a city south of Baghdad. The forced entry part of this code name is pretty self-explanatory, as service members were tasked with entering private homes to search for high-value targets who were suspected of attacking coalition forces.

This counterterrorism unit included 13,000 top secret service members who served as military security to support the 2005 inauguration of George W. Bush. Taken from a video game series, the name Power Geyser refers to a character who was able to blast the ground with his fist and create a field of explosive energy around him that sent his opponents flying. In real life, these elite troops carried top of the line weaponry and lurked in the shadows around the White House and the Capitol building while the inauguration took place.

These 2007 missions were efforts to make residential neighborhoods, areas with lots of traffic, and marketplaces safer for Iraqis to live and work during the American involvement of the Iraq war. Service members combed these areas looking for car bombs and IEDs with a decided effort to cut down on sectarian violence in the city. The codenames were pretty easy to figure out, proof that sometimes the most basic name is the best one.

Whoever was thinking up mission names during the Iraq War was definitely trying to keep the plans top secret to ensure the missions were successful. With names like All-American Tiger and Grizzly Forced Entry, someone was trying to make sure no one knew our military's plans.

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The 5 strangest military mission names from the Iraq War - We Are The Mighty

My interviewee was close to tears. A tough former United States army officer, once lauded for the lethal effectiveness of his operations against Iraqi insurgents, he was finding it difficult to get his words out. He said his sole reason for talking to me was to persuade people who would watch my film to think twice about the wisdom of military intervention. War as an institution is pure evil, he told me. Its pure evil.

I had first visited Iraq in 2016 to meet Yazidi refugees fleeing Islamic State, the terrorist group which, at that time, controlled Mosul in the north of the country. I was filming a series of documentaries about the journeys of various refugees from their country of origin to their final destination.

Exodus took four years to make and was a success, but when it was finished, I couldnt get Iraq out of my mind. Having spent a lot of time with my subjects, I felt very connected to their situation. It wasnt just the plight of the Yazidis I was concerned about, it was the state of the whole country.

As with any situation, there are causes and effects going back a long way, but it seemed to me that the toppling of Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi dictator, in 2003 was as good a place as any to start. The falling of that domino led to the destabilisation of the region, and that led to refugees arriving in Europe and that, in turn, was one of the factors in the rise of far-Right nationalism.

Id hear those same far-Right nationalists blaming the refugees themselves for their own plight. Its their fault nothing to do with us. I found it infuriating; the equivalent of burning down someones house and then blaming them for living on the street.

I see the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the subsequent occupation and civil war as the origin story for so much that is still affecting our lives. Hideously ironic, isnt it, that George W Bush and Tony Blairs pre-emptive strike to nip a supposed terrorist threat in the bud should have led directly to the creation of Isil?

I didnt want to make a regular documentary where I interviewed politicians, decision makers and the key players. I wanted to tell the story through the eyes of those whose lives were impacted and altered by those political decisions.

Miriam Walsh, our amazing archive producer, somehow dredged up around 13,000 film clips amounting to 800 hours of footage from 2003 and 2004 showing all kinds of stuff: street scenes, interviews, army activity, the aftermath of insurgent attacks, actual attacks. Much of it had never been seen before. And through the network of contacts I already had in Iraq, we were able to find some of the people featured in this archive and get some astonishing interviews.

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I hope viewers will reflect on the fact that the invasion of Iraq was utterly pointless - Telegraph.co.uk

Pick of the day: Once Upon A Time In Iraq

9pm, BBC Two

The 2003 invasion of Iraq is given a fresh perspective in a series from James Bluemel, the director of the acclaimed Exodus: Our Journey, which put camera phones in the hands of refugees fleeing to Europe. His compelling new documentary is a mosaic of individual witnesses to the US-British conquest and its Isis-infested aftermath, but instead of the usual gamut of politicians and generals, these are normal Iraqis ranging from comedians, formerly West-obsessed teens, a farmers wife from Saddam Husseins home town, Tikrit, and a Saddam loyalist. We also hear from Americans, including a chilling ex-Marine who seems to have modelled himself on Rambo.

8.30pm, BBC Two

Who will be the new Ian Wang or Brandon Blackwell as the student quiz returns for its 27th series since its revival in 1995, with the opening match of the first round seeing the University of Glasgow take on the University of Exeter? Jeremy Paxman has their starters for 10.

9pm, BBC One

Laura Carmichaels performance as the troubled Agnes is the biggest pull in this entertaining if slightly predictable Australian stolen-baby drama her plan moving into overdrive as Meghan prepares to give birth and the hapless Haydenis granted compassionate leave from the Navy.

9pm, ITV

Two contrasting stories this week, as the unfailingly moving series continues with its catch-up episodes. In the case of reunited half-siblings Geoffrey Tonks and Barbara Jacobs, the mutual discovery appears to have been a success, and staring for the first time at a photograph of him with the mother who felt compelled to give him up for adoption, Tonks says with moving simplicity: Sitting on your mothers lap it doesnt get better than this. More complicated is the case of Robert Lindsay from Ayrshire, attempting to build a relationship with his Croatian father.

9pm, Channel 4

Not the most original idea for a documentary series (see also BBC Ones Ambulance), but actually there is a highly topical angle here. It follows West Midlands Ambulance Service at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic in April, from the perspective of the crews, control room staff and managers as they struggle to get more ambulances onto the front line managers having to deploy student paramedics, to deal with patients with breathing difficulties, in care homes, and with isolation-related mental health issues.

9pm, BBC Four

A look at how the composers return to the town of Heiligenstadt led to one of the most extraordinary outpourings of creativity in the history of music, from the earth-shattering Eroica through to Symphony No 7.

10.45pm, BBC One

The penultimate episode of Michaela Coels superb drama has surprises for all three of the friends as Arabella tries to contact another novelist at her publishing house, Kwame discovers the non-sexual joys of a relationship, and Terrygoes on a most surprising date.

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On TV tonight, Once Upon A Time In Iraq offers fresh perspectives on the 2003 invasion - iNews