Kurdish spy chief: No plan for post-Daesh Mosul

There may be no concrete plans for Mosul once Daesh is forced out of its last major urban stronghold in Iraq, the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) spy chief said today.

Speaking at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London, Lahur Talabani, who heads up the Kurdish Zanyari Intelligence Agency (ZIA), described the ongoing fighting against Daesh and the KRG’s contribution to the imminent operation to retake Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, from the terrorist group.

Talabani said that he was not aware of any solid plans for what Mosul post-Daesh would look like or even who would govern it, adding that he “hoped that [the Iraqi government and US-led coalition] had plans behind closed doors.”

The lack of a plan raises concerns for the safety of Iraqi civilians who have endured more than two years of Daesh rule as well as almost a decade of sectarian governance, mismanagement and abuse under the regime of former Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki.

Last May, RUSI published research that surveyed Iraqis living in Mosul. The research found that many people in Mosul feared the Iraqi government as much as Daesh, if not more so due to sectarian massacres perpetrated by the Iraqi authorities and allied Shia militias.

Suggesting that it was futile to expect the Shia militias to not take part in the upcoming Mosul operation, Talabani stated that it would perhaps be better to assign them their own area of responsibility whilst leaving “the Golden Division to take the lead.”

The “Golden Division” is the Iraqi government’s elite counter-terrorism military unit, more formally known as the Special Operations Forces subordinated to the Counter Terrorism Command. The Golden Division have been accused of perpetrating war crimes against civilians, and was branded as one of many Iraqi “dirty brigades” by ABC News.

The Kurdish spymaster also mentioned that the Peshmerga, the KRG’s militia, will not be entering Mosul itself but will instead be helping to shape operations from outside the city.

Talabany is connected with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), a rival to the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) controlled by KRG President Massoud Barzani, and is a nephew of Kurdish figure and PUK leader Jalal Talabani.

Mosul was snatched out of Baghdad’s grasp in June 2014 when a few hundred Daesh operatives and other armed groups conducted a surprise attack against the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF), putting two divisions of troops to flight. At the time, Daesh controlled large swathes of Iraqi territory.

Over the past year, however, Daesh has been steadily rolled back by the ISF and allied Shia militias who have been accused of egregious sectarian abuses in revenge attacks against Sunni civilians. Daesh has primarily lost ground due to extensive air support from the international US-led coalition.