"I'm on night shift when she (his girlfriend) calls," Omar says. "She's terrified, whispering that men with guns are in her house looking for her." Amira had locked herself in the bathroom. The gunmen were ransacking the house and yelling, Which one works for the Americans?
Omar grabbed a vest and an AK-47 and raced to the house in his SUV, lights flashing. There were two cars parked at her front gate, and an armed lookout. Omar crashed straight into the first car. "My SUV landed right on top of it, killing the getaway driver inside. And then I shot the lookout." ... I kept firing, killing two of them, and I saw a third go down. I ran inside the gate, trying to get to the house. That's when I felt the first bullets hit me."
As Omar was falling, he returned fire, killing the last gunman. By that point his backup had arrived. "So you know what he does?" Amira says. "He tells his guys to carry him inside. So they do, and he knocks on the bathroom door." "I wanted her to hear my voice," Omar says. "So she'll know she's safe."