Headcam video shows what it’s like to fight for Islamic State

THIS is a video which probably won’t be promoted on Islamic State propaganda channels anytime soon. Your day won’t look so bad after seeing this.

THIS is a video which probably won’t be promoted by Islamic State anytime soon.

The footage taken from the headcam of a dead fighter paints a very different picture from the one churned out by the IS propaganda machine.

In the footage below, a group of fighters can be seen looking frazzled and disorganised in the midst of a battle with Peshmerga forces.

The video, obtained by Vice News was taken from the headcam of a fighter who died last month.

The militant was battling Peshmerga forces in Northern Iraq, around 50km north of Mosul when he was reportedly killed.

According to Vice, the footage “shows the fighters in disarray” and in stark contrast to the slick propaganda videos the group would prefer to be seen in.

In the video uploaded to YouTube What it’s really like to fight for Islamic State, three men are seen in front of a vehicle after adjusting a camera to see if it works.

An emotional farewell is made before a suicide bomber heads off presumably on a mission.

The video then crosses to the fighters on their way to battle the Kurdish forces.

What follows next speaks for itself.

One of the men warns another about not hitting one of their brothers as they chant ‘God is great’.

It only continues to go downhill from here as the trio look like anything but the hard fighters they would like the world to see them as.

One tells the other where his magazine is before yelling can be heard from one of the men shouting “pass me another rocket”.

The ensuring scenes show the trip who appear unorganised and at times frazzled.

One the yells “the bullet casings are hitting us”.

When a weapon is fired he tells his comrade “good job but you roasted us too.”

One of the men is yelled at and asked what is wrong with him.

The video obtained by Vice shows the Islamic State fighters apparently in trouble. Picture: Screengrab courtesy of Vice.

Then one of the group appears to have a lot of trouble loading a bomb into another weapon, fumbling for a long time before finally managing to fire it off.

Except it’s the wrong one, with further shambles ensuing.

Their vehicle is then hit by a Peshmerga rocket, with one of the men being shot.

They escape but not before realising they‘ve forgotten a gun or two, forcing them to retreat, with the driver known as Khattab dying in the battle.

And you think you’ve had a bad day.

It was not known whether this fighter is the one who died or another one.

But if the video is anything to go by, speculation that the good times are over for Islamic State might turn out to be correct.

Islamic State has suffered a number of significant losses in recent times.

The IS fighters appear frazzled and at times disorganised. Picture: Courtesy of Vice.

A study and map presented by US think tank, IHS Conflict Monitor, show the terror group lost 14 per cent of its territory last year, including the strategically important town of Tal Abyad on Syria’s border with Turkey, the Iraq city of Tikrit, and Iraq’s Baiji refinery.

Then in March this year Syrian troops drove the militant group out of the ancient city of Palmyra, in a major loss for the terror group.

The loss was seen as a huge win for Syrian Government forces which managed to cut off a major access route.

IS was driven from of its most important strongholds and hundreds of its fighters are dead after Syrian government forces, backed by Russian air strikes, took back control of the ancient city of Palmyra in March.

A number of anti-terrorist experts speculated it was the beginning of the end for the group which was battling to establish a caliphate across the region.