The training encompassed a number of activities. First and foremost was religious and political indoctrination that was meant to provide the recruits with a deeper understanding of the cause for which they were fighting. The instructors used classic brainwashing techniques, including food depravation and endless repetition to convince them that Islam is the only truthful religion and Mohammad was the only real prophet and messenger of Allah. They were also told that dying while fighting for the cause would earn them a place in paradise where each will be served by 72 virgins. For the foreign recruits there were also lessons in basic Arabic.
The second focus was installing ruthlessness and brutality. This was done by forcing the recruits to slaughter farm animals that were confiscated from neighboring farms with a blunt knife while soaking their hands and clothes in the blood. This method was considered effective since it was used to train the Al Qaeda terrorists that seized control of the four airplanes used for the 9-11 attacks. The trainees were encouraged to spy on their fellow recruits and report any indiscretion, such as drinking alcohol or blaspheming the name of Allah. These offenses were punished severely, by extra duties like cleaning latrines, whipping, and solitary confinement and sometimes even with a death sentence that was carried out by the fellow trainees.
Physical fitness was assured by long marches with backpacks filled with sand, by jogging up to 40 kilometers and by carrying heavy telephone poles up and down the hills that surrounded the camp.
Weapon training included the use of handguns, rifles and rocket propelled grenades or RPGs and small caliber mortars, as well as unarmed combat and knife duels. A special prize, proffered only to the most proficient trainees, was an advanced course in the use of explosives and demolition.
Finally, the trainees had to traverse an obstacle course that included climbing a stone wall, crawling under barbed wire, running on a narrow wooden plank that was set 5 meters above ground and jumping down at the edge of the plank. As if this was not enough the final test was to pass this obstacle course under live fire. The instructors aimed just inches above the heads of the recruits and every so often the aim was a bit too low or a trainee lifted his head at the wrong moment resulting in one less able bodied graduate. Several trainees dropped out and a few committed suicide but the graduates were tough, ruthless fighters.
Ollie, as he was called by all, excelled in all these classes. He was highly motivated, had arrived knowing the basics of Islam from his tutor in Uppsala, and was physically and mentally in great shape. He was marked for promotion by all his instructors and was soon selected to lead a squad of the newly anointed Hizbollah fighters.
With his squad he was taken to a fortified outpost on a hill overlooking the border between Lebanon and Israel. From there he could see some of the villages on each side of the border and easily noted the difference between the modern agricultural techniques used on the Israeli side and the traditional methods on the Lebanese side. He saw the patrols of the three armed forces in the region — the white vehicles and blue uniforms of the United Nations "peace keeping" force, the khaki vehicles and uniforms of the Israeli patrols that always travelled in pairs and the camouflage uniforms of the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) with their American made M-113s Armored Personnel Carriers. He also saw quite a lot of aerial activity by jet fighters, helicopters and unmanned drones and was told that they were all from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). He was taken to one of the large villages on the Lebanese side and was shown the primitive rockets and more sophisticated missiles that were hidden in bunkers and tunnels that were dug under the school and mosque and was told that these were the insurance policy of the villagers that they would not be attacked by the IDF ground and air forces.
Ollie found the whole situation not to his liking for two main reasons: first, when he converted to Islam it was as a Suni Muslim like Fatima and the old sheik in Uppsala and not a Shi'ite like most of his Hizbollah colleagues and secondly he wanted combat action not to be positioned in an outpost waiting for something to happen. So when he heard about the formation of a radical Suni armed faction in Iraq and Syria he found a way to desert from Hizbollah on a dark night when no one was watching and travelled across the border from Lebanon to join the ISIS forces in Syria.
The fierce fighting between the Islamic State forces and the poorly trained but determined Peshmergah Kurds near the Turkish border continued with no winner but many losers — the civilian population on both sides of the border and the fighters that lost their lives and even the Turkish regular army soldiers, ordered by their government to stay out of the fighting but to prevent fighters from either side to cross into, and out of, Turkish soil.
Ollie led a small but select unit that consisted of volunteers from Western Europe that had recently converted to Islam. This unit, known as Ollie's Butchers, was feared for its ruthlessness and cruelty. The new converts to Islam wanted to show the world and particularly their fanatic comrades in arms, that they were totally dedicated to their new found faith. Members of this unit were seen on global TV networks beheading prisoners with a dull dagger. Not shown on TV, although they really wanted to be seen in the act, were the incidents of rape of women, men, girls, boys and babies. These acts were too much even for the most sensational TV stations and were quickly removed from Youtube due to their excessively graphic violence.
Ollie's cellphone rang once and a coded text message summoned him to the Supreme Commander, known only as El Kahiri in reference to his original hometown of Cairo. El Kahiri set up his headquarters near the front lines of skirmish so that he could watch his troops closely and make sure that they carried out their duties according to his "shock and awe" (to borrow the US term) tactics. Ollie left the unit under the command of his second-in-command John the Beheader, also known as John the Jihadist an ex-Briton, whose masked face was familiar to TV viewers globally as the executioner of western prisoners and hostages.
Still wearing his blood soaked military fatigues, Ollie mounted a motorbike that was "loaned" from a local garage, and rode to the five story house in which El Kahiri established his headquarters. After passing through the door guarded by two armed troopers, who frisked Ollie and removed his weapons and cellphone, he entered a windowless room on the ground floor with walls that were fortified by slabs of concrete as protection against artillery and mortar shells, as well as against the barrels of explosives dropped by Syrian air force helicopters.
El Kahiri was seated on a folding chair at a rickety table and looked emaciated with a nervous tick in his left cheek. In a low voice he asked Ollie to sit opposite him at the table and then ordered all others to leave the room. After the door was shut El Kahiri said:
"Ollie, you know that we have reached a dead-end here in Syria. The world media refuses to screen our footage of executions, pillage, destruction and rape. You are one of my best fighters and certainly a commendable leader of people into battle. You have shown your bravery, ruthlessness and total commitment to the cause of the Islamic State to rid the world of all infidels, be they Christian or Jews who refuse to acknowledge the greatness of Allah and Muhammad his Prophet, or Muslims who are misguided and believe that they can co-exist with these Kafers, and our own brethren who do not recognize our leadership".
Ollie responded by saying "Supreme Commander, you know that I have seen the light of the true religion and will follow you to the Heaven promised to the Shahids who sacrifice their life for the greatness of Allah".