The Mad Dogs of Mosul – Part I

Sheri Laizer | Exclusive to iKurd.net

An overview as the Mosul operation continues

Obama had called on Turkey to attack ISIS four days before they headed into Mosul stating the Turks had attack helicopters and jets which they regularly used against the PKK. But Turkey refused and the US was denied permission to fly over Turkish airspace to attack ISIS directly… ISIS took Mosul.

Sated on human flesh, the mad dogs of Mosul howl down the broken corridors of the city. The bodies of slain Daesh fighters lie unburied where they fell – prey to the birds and dogs or slowly decomposing 1. Plague and disease loom large.

Islamic extremism has carried Mosul back to Old Testament barbarity (and I say this for historic rather than religious reasons). “Anyone of Baasha who dies in the city the dogs will eat, and anyone of his who dies in the field the birds of the heavens will eat.2“

“I will appoint over them four kinds of doom,” declares the Lord: “the sword to slay, the dogs to drag off, and the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. 3”

Children walk past rotting corpses of IS militants left as a message by the slayers as to what will befall those still fighting. Thus, the campaign to retake control of Mosul advances at its own precarious pace according to its own rules: the eastern sectors have been ‘liberated’, the west poses greater pitfalls owing to the narrow confines in which IS fighters are embedded amongst the civilian population.

In the 1930s, Freya Stark had written of the very routes that would later be exploited by IS convoys racing between Aleppo, Raqqa, and Mosul in the course to declare their ‘Caliphate’. Stark observed “There is a very old caravan track which leads from Mosul by Nisibin (now Nusaybin and under Turkish siege4) to Aleppo. It goes back to times before metals were invented: it was a highway in the days of Assyria: and the convoys of silk travelled along it on their way from China to Byzantium when Justinian selected Artaxata, near Erzurum, Rakka on the Euphrates and Nisibis, as the three market towns for interchange of wares between the Empires of Persia and Rome. In the first centuries of Arabian rule this route still went through pleasant and fertile lands…5

Al-Mausil (Mosul) literally means “that which connects” referring to upper Mesopotamia and Syria, or the Tigris and the Euphrates.6. It also means “crossroads.” Under successive competing empires, Mosul stands at the crossroads in many ways.

The old Roman bridge at Balad, or Eski Mosul, 40 km north-west of Mosul remains solitary, sufficiently distant from the present fighting to be spared, unlike the five bridges that divide Mosul’s left and right banks; three of these historic crossing points have been bombed out by the US and IS had blown up part of another two bridges before the Iraqi forces arrived to claim victory in east Mosul 7. The east was wrested from IS on 23 January 2017.8

Who was responsible for the fall of Mosul?

Once home to 2 million people, including Kurds, Yezidi Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen, Shabak, Circassian, Assyrian and Chaldean Christians, among others, Mosul also was also home to renaissance Ba’athists, Hamas-in-Iraq, Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) and Jaysh Rijal al-Tariqa al-Naqshbandia (the Naqshbandi Army 10) amongst other Sunni groups before ISIS/IS emerged from the shadows.

After the first Gulf War and 1991 Kurdish uprising resulted in the creation of the northern No Fly Zone, all the checkpoints on the roads between the KAA (Kurdish Autonomous Area11) and Mosul were manned by peshmerga holding in check Iraqi Army forays across the ceasefire line. Between 1991 and 2003, Mosul became rife with criminal gangs operating kidnappings for ransom and carrying out dubious revenge killings and murders.

After 2003, the Shi’a dominated administration in Baghdad had effectively sidelined the Sunni elite directly fomenting a Salafist dominated backlash. Saddam Hussein’s two sons, Qusay and Uday, had enjoyed Sunni protection there until their whereabouts were betrayed and US forces assassinated them – along with Qusay’s young son. Saddam’s execution in December 2006 carved deeper divisions.12

Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) also operated effectively in Mosul well before the Arab Spring, and targeted professionals, including females holding tenure at Mosul university. Death threats, abductions and murders began to characterize life in Mosul. Mosul’s pluralist mosaic was being taken apart. Despite this, many prominent Sunnis lent their support.

The writing was on the wall long before ISIS/IS convoys began to roar down the old caravan routes from their base at Raqqa in Syria. Flying the black and white flag, their vehicles were distinct and could in theory have been picked off from above by US airpower. So why weren’t they?

The well-trained army of Saddam Hussein had been dismantled: former Ba’athists had been active in the insurgency and initially helped ISIS/IS gain a foothold. For their part, the peshmerga were largely composed of younger, less experienced men than their fathers’ generation although a few stalwarts remain in positions of command. Their mandate being the defense of Kurdistan, Mosul was suddenly considered not to be their territory and Maliki rejected Kurdish assistance. US air power early on could theoretically have prevented ISIS/IS from reaching Mosul but implausible falsehoods were spun about the risks to civilian casualties while the roads stayed open. The real reason was Turkey’s refusal to let US jets use its air space.13

According to one commentator on the ground at the time who requested anonymity, “Maliki took the position that most of the Ba’athists had gone to Syria and would return and that large Sunni JRNT cells14 still operated in Mosul area with the help of former Iraqi Vice President, Izzat Ibrahim al Douri, Osama al-Nujaifi (educated at Mosul University) and his brother Atheel al-Nujaifi, governor of Nineveh and Tarik al-Hashemi. 15

President Obama had addressed West Point in May 2014 and slammed Recep Tayyip Erdogan for removing the Al Nusra Front from the list of terrorist organisations. Obama had called on Turkey to attack ISIS four days before they headed into Mosul stating the Turks had attack helicopters and jets which they regularly used against the PKK. But Turkey refused and the US was denied permission to fly over Turkish airspace to attack ISIS directly.

By 5 June 2014, Atheel Nujaifi was telling Massoud Barzani that ISIS fighters were on the way. Turkish FM Davutoglu was called out by Joe Biden for not stopping them grouping on the Turkish border.

When ISIS went into Mosul, many Sunnis in the Iraqi army slipped from view only to come back dressed in ISIS gear. Maliki had refused the help of the peshmerga and ISIS seized control of Mosul on 10 June. The jihadists also took Tikrit and proceeded to take control of other strategic areas in Iraq and Deir Al Zour’s oil rich province in Syria, and a year later, in April 2015, the Baiji oil refinery in Iraq 16.

Sunni ‘Arab Spring’ in Mosul: a bid to get rid of Al Maliki.

ISIS was essentially a Sunni resistance creation and a by-product of the JRNT Sunni resistance as al-Maliki made clear before Mosul fell: “Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki addressed his military officers on TV in light of security reports stating that the attackers are Baathists affiliated with Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri – who was vice president under Saddam – as well as officers from the former Iraqi army and Fedayeen Saddam… Appeals were made from more than one side for Peshmerga forces to take part in thwarting the invading forces. But they refused, arguing that they only defend Kurdish and ethnically mixed areas. It is said that US pressure was exerted on Erbil in this regard which led to an understanding between Maliki and Nechirvan Barzani stipulating that Peshmerga forces will take part in the battle to recapture Mosul in return for agreeing to secure exports of oil from Kurdistan…”17

Oil business interests prioritised

Neither the Shia population nor Maliki himself are directly to blame for the fall of Mosul. Turkey had been backing Sunni Jihadist groups against the Syrian government. As is well known, recruits were given direct access to Syria across the Turkish border. Erdogan stands accused of helping ISIS/IS militarily and reaping economic profits, not least through the transportation agency, BMZ, run by his son, Bilal, with oil tankers at his disposal.18 Erdogan’s daughter, Esra, married Berat Albyarak, the Oil Minister, in 2004.

Turkey had sent troops into Iraq and set up a base in Bashiqa, near Mosul, in January 2015 without the consent of Baghdad but with the approval of the KDP agreeing to provide training for local Sunni forces and peshmerga against ISIS.

Turkish opposition MP, Eren Erdem, claimed in December 2015 that “there is a very high probability” that Berat Albayrak, who was appointed energy minister earlier this month, is linked to the supply of oil by the terrorist group…”

Turkish opposition MP, Eren Erdem, claimed in December 2015 that “there is a very high probability” that Berat Albayrak, who was appointed energy minister earlier this month, is linked to the supply of oil by the terrorist group…”19

When the peshmerga withdrew from Sinjar and abandoned the Yezidis to their terrible fate (many lives only being saved by the PKK), they also effectively gave ISIS free passage. 20 Not long after, in the interests of business, together with Turkey, the KDP was soon transporting ISIS oil out of the region and taking a cut of the profits. The complicity was made clear when 300 Turkish lorry drivers and 110 Turkish diplomats were given safe passage out of Mosul within a month completely unharmed by ISIS.

The business continues and takes in the USA, (Rex Tillerson, Foreign Secretary nominee, CEO of Exxon Mobil 21), diverse UK MPs, KRG Kurdish companies and their party cronies. 22

The Mosul Operation

The long awaited military operations to retake control of Mosul finally got underway on 16 October last year: it took the joint forces till 17 January 2017 to attain sufficient security to announce that east Mosul had been liberated from IS fighters after one hundred days of fighting.

The population of Mosul – once 2 million strong – makes the city larger than the Syrian capital, Damascus, and three times larger in scale than east Aleppo where Russian and Syrian state bombardment was heavily criticized for resulting civilian casualties. Heavy artillery is being used in west Mosul to speed things along despite the human costs. Meanwhile IS is launching drones back over the river fitted with explosive devices that largely injure and maim civilians. 23

The Mosul operation causes flashbacks to the first battles of Fallujah in 2003 and 2004 when US air strikes and ground attacks caused high numbers of civilian deaths and the deliberate destruction of Sunni neighbourhoods. 24

Currently, similar deliberate targeting of Sunnis by the Shi’a Popular Mobilisation Forces (coupled with Iraqi Federal Police units) amounts to war crimes, as detailed in the latest reports by Amnesty International. It is worth recalling that Prime Minister al-Abadi “issued Order 91 in February and Parliament passed a law in November designating the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), established in June 2014 as a “military formation and part of the Iraqi armed forces.”25 However, not only do elements within the militia forces subject Sunni detainees to torture and extra-judicial execution, entire Sunni families risk being forcibly evicted from their traditional seats such as in Ramadi, Fallujah (again) al-Qayyarah, Sharqat, and various Sunni villages south of Mosul, inter alia.

Death and desecration

The war is not yet won and figures released by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) confirm that more than 200,000 civilians have so far fled from Mosul while 50% of the fatalities are civilian. According to the Iraq Body Count, overall in Iraq, last year, 16,000 non-combatants lost their lives. The figure for Mosul is already in the hundreds, not including the unknown figure for those slaughtered by IS. 26

The unrivalled cultural legacy of the once mighty Assyrian civilisation at Nineveh has been wiped out as has Hatra, the tomb of Jonah, (Nebi Yunus), the Mosul library and numerous other world heritage sites in Iraq 27 just as with Palmyra in Syria 28.

The Grand Mosque, formerly Saddam Mosque, went on to become used by IS as a VBIED factory 29. It is intact although desecrated. The famous ziggurat-shaped Mosul Hotel was blown up and the Nineveh Oberoi Hotel is severely damaged having been used as a base by IS marksmen. Mosul University has also suffered damage and was used as a bomb and chemical weapons factory. “Not one of the structures that housed the faculty, administration and students has been left unscathed by the battle to expel ISIS/IS. Air strikes have sheared off roofs and collapsed entire floors, fire has gutted interiors and blackened facades, broken glass and other debris litter the courtyards. Iraq’s second largest university is now lifeless…”30

West Mosul still dices with death

In the west of the city, still home to some 750,000 people, guerilla-style combat continues with some 3,000 IS extremists using civilians as shields, and taking control of their homes for use as safe houses including burrowing through walls and tunneling under buildings, many rigged with explosives. 31

Col. Falah Al-Obaidi of the Iraqi counterterror forces observed to the Washington Post, “Now it’s hard to consider an area liberated, because though we control the surface, ISIS will appear from under the ground, like rats… The officers described the battlefield as more of a sphere than a plane — with threats coming from side to side, above and below. Journalists embedded with Iraqi special forces reported ISIS fighters popping out of tunnels after areas were secured to fire at the troops.”

With utilities barely functioning and food and medical supplies dwindling Mosul’s besieged residents stare death in the face on a daily basis. 32

Trumps’ team: government’s conflict of interest with business. Did someone say oil?

It was all so predictable. Worryingly, the war in Iraq (and Syria) is likely to be racked up further. Defense Secretary, James “Mad Dog” Mattis, reportedly discussed upping US military involvement in both countries with Trump last week in the Pentagon. According to the Wall Street Journal, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine General Joseph Dunford, revealed the Pentagon would be presenting Trump with a “political-military plan” to “advance our long-term interests in the region” while dealing with IS in Iraq and Syria. 33

Mattis had played a key role in the Battle of Fallujah… He’d defended a military strike which killed 42 people in 2004, which the US said targeted a militant safe house, but survivors and many reports said was a wedding party. “Bad things happen in wars. I don’t have to apologise for the conduct of my men,” he was quoted as saying at the time.” 34

Former Republican President, George W. Bush, had prematurely boasted that his country had brought democracy to Iraqis whereas, in fact, American foreign policy has brought about the ruin of Iraq.

Profits from oil and building contracts have been diverted into private and family pockets rather than for the benefit of the Iraqi people. 35

Read Part II: Iraqi Kurdistan – “Sold Out!” – Part II

Related article from Sheri Laizer:

• For Sale: Iraqi Kurdistan, a Nation and Its Values
• Welcome To The ‘Islamic Republic Of Turkey’

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Business with ISIS – Updated Iraqi Kurdistan – “Sold Out!” – Part II Iraq – The Cynical Swindle Turkey: Nato’s Islamic State Member “ISLAMBUL” Saddam Hussein…The Hell That is Iraq!? Hiding in Plain Sight: Turkey’s ISIS Links, Al-Baghdadi’s Last Refuge and the Jihadist-Controlled “Safe” Zone Kirkuk – Wars of Deception And Elections What makes a good NATO ally? The Case of Turkey The Resurrection (Ba’ath) Party – Before the Iran-Iraq War