As a British soldier in 2003, Adnan was part of the invasion from Kuwait alongside the United States Marine Corps, subsequently spending six months in Basra where he worked in a liaison role helping local Iraqi civilians affected by the war. Here he saw the effects of a multinational complex war on a population. He returned in 2006/7 where under intensive mortar fire he helped ready Basra Air Station to be handed over to Iraqi troops. He returned to the country for The Economist in 2016 to interviews the foreign fighters joining the Kurds to fight against ISIS, documenting the motivations of unrelated persons to become involved in the war. In 2018, he created a travel series worked for the BBC travelling the length of the country from north to the south, this was called “The best documentary of the year so far” by the TV Times and given *****  in the Financial Times, it was during this he got to see the results of the invasion fifteen years later with the population split across sectarian lines. 

Selected media

2018, BBC, Journey in the Danger Zone: Iraq, Presenter and Idea

2018, 1843 Magazine (The Economist), Saddam Hussein: My part in his downfall

2018, Five Dials (Hamish Hamilton), Then and Now, a soldier returns

2016, The Economist, Why an ordinary man went to fight Islamic State 

2013, The Outpost (Beirut), An Iraqi near the Sandpit, on the 2003 Iraq war

2013, The White Review, To sing the love of danger, on the 2003 Iraq war