Erbil – An independent Iraqi politician revealed that commander of Revolutionary Guard, Qasem Soleimani, threatened former Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi of taking over al-Mosul if he didn’t support former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
Ghanem al-Abed revealed to Asharq al-Awsat newspaper that both Iran and al-Maliki facilitated ISIS taking over al-Mosul. He explained that some of al-Qaeda leaders escaped Abu Ghraib prison with the help of an Iraqi official.
Al-Abed said that Nori al-Maliki and Qaeda commanders who escaped prompted the operation that led to ISIS control over al-Mosul.
According to Abed, Iran facilitated things for ISIS, including the sudden withdrawal of the Iraqi Army from the city and leaving behind a large amount of advanced weapons. Based on estimations of Iraqi Ministry of Defense, the amount of weapons left behind would add up to 27 billion dollars. Abed believed that hadn’t it been for these weapons, ISIS wouldn’t have been able to execute a wide-ranged attack on Kurdistan, Baghdad, and Kobani.
Abed said that ISIS control over Mosul wasn’t a surprise since commander in chief of Iraqi Armed Forces, back then Maliki, Ministry of Defense, and all security commanders knew about it.
In April 2014, Mosul security forces arrested ISIS’ Minister of Detainees Affairs Ouf Abdul Rahman. Abdul Rahman confessed that something will happen inside Mosul at the beginning of June. Based on Rahman’s confessions, six ISIS camps where determined in Rayy al-Jazeera al-Qadeem and south of al-Hatra.
Abed said: “On May 20, Nineveh Intelligence informed operations leadership that ISIS plans on executing several operations in the governorate with the aim of bringing the battle to Mosul. “
Intelligence presented a series of suggestions to counter the attack including reinforcing the security forces in al-Jazeera and a joint operation between Nineveh operations, al-Badiya, Saladin, and al-Anbar.
Abed explained that director of Nineveh Intelligence warned of ISIS attack on Mosul and other governorates, yet head of Nineveh Operations Mahdi al-Gharawi took a vacation on June third.
Abed believe that Iraqi Security Forces’ biggest mistake was killing ISIS commander Abu Abdul Rahman al-Bilawi.