Fraudsters Promise Army Jobs in Karbala

“But it never occurred to me that almost everyone who was there was also a victim, like me,” Abdul-Amir says. “After two months we realised the camp was just a set up and that it had nothing to do with the Ministry of Defence. Most of the people in uniform were part of a gang that specialized in this kind of fraud and they all gradually disappeared.”

Karbala is one of Iraq's most holy cities – it gets millions of mostly Shiite Muslim visitors every year from abroad and is under very tight security most of the time. So it is hard to imagine anyone being able to set up a fake army base near Karbala without local authorities having some idea of what was going on.

The head of the provincial council's security committee, Aqeel al-Masoudi, said they had had no information about any such camp. “But we will investigate quickly and we will organise local security agencies to check on this camp,” al-Masoudi said. “Additionally victims of this fraud should make official complaints.”

“These gangs appeared after the highest Shiite Muslim authority [al-Sistani] called upon locals to take part in the holy fight against the extremists,” says Hassan Obaid Issa, a security expert and senior army officer based in Karbala. “Given the collapse of the Iraqi army and the current security chaos, it seems only natural that things like this would happen,” he suggested. “It just reflects the general disarray in the country.”

Meanwhile all that the young couple, Rasul and Muthather, can do is pray that they can get their money back and that the Karbala authorities will do their best to find the man who dashed their hopes and took their savings.