The following narrative was forwarded by a friend who owns a security company. The witness is one of his employees who started working for him after several years in Iraq and Afghanistan. He states that he worked for the U.S. Army Criminal Investigations (CID) before and during the conflicts. He left the service for unspecified reasons. This account is second-hand but I believe the witness' sincerity though he wishes to remain anonymous. The anecdote was written by the witness and has not been edited except for some spelling:
I was an investigator with CID from 2004-2009 and served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Most of my work was related to various schemes (bribery, money laundering, theft, etc.) by enlisted personnel.
In 2005 I was informed that I would be embedded with an Army infantry unit in a mountainous region in the Sulaymaniyah Governorate (northeast Iraq). Once I reached my assigned location we were briefed on strange activity that had occurred in a particular area just a few miles from the Iranian border.
We started the investigation by reading reports that came from a few local villagers who stated that people were being hunted in the mountains by an unknown creature. One man told me that the Iranians called it a 'ghool'. He had never seen it but it was described as a tall man-like creature with long arms and legs who fed on human flesh. I reported the information I gathered to my superiors after returning to the unit HQ.
A few days later I was ordered to return to the area of the strange activity and investigate further. An infantry squad with squad leader was assigned to accompany me. The general consensus was that it was likely a soldier who left his post (AWOL) and went batshit and started causing problems. Armed conflict can induce the worst in people to surface. If this was the case and the individual was killing non-combatants our job would be formidable.
After a few days of surveillance and searching we had no clue of what we were dealing with. If this was indeed a soldier or other civilian man we would have seen him or gathered some evidence. I was starting to believe that this was a wild goose chase but the villagers were animate that there was something hunting them.
One evening the squad leader and I were going over a report when we were alarmed by a god-awful scream that came from the direction of a mountain pass that we had just searched a few hours before. A few local people who had been outside quickly made their way home. It was obvious that they had heard this scream before.
Within the hour the squad and I were slowly entering the pass. It was night but the moon was very bright so we were able to see around a bit. We searched the entire area for several hours using night vision and high-intensity lights. We found nothing - not a footprint or remnant from any creature fitting the description.
I have always wondered what we heard that night. I have asked a few learned people for their opinion but with little satisfaction. There were many strange instances in Iraq that just never made the light of day. I heard of some but I'm positive most were just filed away.
NOTE: interesting story...there have been humanoid claims by the Persians for almost 900 years. There is a Persian story about Ameen and the Ghool and the 'Valley of the Angel of Death' as well as other folklore. I do hope that some of the strange phenomena experienced in Iraq and Afghanistan are disclosed at some point...Lon