Iraqi soldier Bassil Hassan says he wept as he abandoned his base in the face of a Sunni militant advance and is desperate to redeem himself by returning to the fight. He stands outside the Iraqi Airways ****** in the **rthern city of Arbil, clamouring for a ticket on any plane back to Baghdad to rejoin his unit. He is one of many Iraqi army soldiers who left their posts, clearing the way for Sunni militants, including jihadists from the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL), to seize major cities. We feel so ashamed, because we didn't fight, we were defeated without firing a single shot." He says soldiers in his unit in Kirkuk province began deserting individually in the hours after the **rthern city of Mosul fell and militants were reported to be entering the province.