An axe-wielding university lecturer has become a cult war hero in Iraq
As ISIS battles a joint military assault by Iraqi forces and Iranian-backed militias for the city of Tikrit, Iraqis elsewhere have set their hopes on the burly shoulders of a man they’ve dubbed the Angel of Death.

Abu Azrael, as he is known, is purported to be a legendary commander of the Imam Ali Brigade, an Iranian proxy group fighting in Iraq. He has become a cult figure with Iraqi social media users creating tribute Facebook pages to him and circulating images of Abu Azrael holding axes, waving swords, and abusing the corpses of ISIS fighters.

Is The Angel Of Death Just Iranian Propaganda?
Although his real identity remains unclear, local reports claim he’s worked as a university lecturer and that he at one point won Iraq’s national tae kwon do championship.

Tikrit is Saddam Hussein’s hometown and it has a great strategic and emotional importance for the country’s Sunni minority. Some local reports claim that the Iraqi and Shia forces have already seized large areas of the city.