 The photographer, Warzar Jaff, was in the passenger seat. I was in the back. Abdul Wahab's M16 was by my feet. An ICTF veteran in his 40s who had given up fighting, Abdul Wahab had been ferrying Jaff and me to and from Mosul for months. He was stocky and gruff, an expert at passing through the myriad checkpoints that led to the front lines, always knowing what to say or whom to call or when to gift his sunglasses to an admiring militiaman.