ISIS occupation in Mosul ended in an 9 month operation

The city of Mosul invaded by ISIS on June 10, 2014 has been cleared of ISIS following a military campaign that was launched on October 17, 2016 and lasted around 9 months.

Mosul, one of the most strategic cities in the Middle East with its location over Tigris River and underground and above ground treasures, was under ISIS occupation since June 10, 2014 when an estimated 60 thousand Iraqi forces retreated from the city in a night and abandoned it to a few hundred ISIS members.

As debates continued as to the handover of the city to ISIS in line with which agreements and plannings with the involvement of which international and regional states, ISIS gangs just entered the city by facing no resistance. It later came out that ISIS had received the support of Iraq's overthrown leader Saddam Hussein's Baath party members (like his right hand Izzet Al-Duri) as well as some Sunni tribes in the city and Mosul Governor Atheel al-Nujaifi and his tribe.

One other matter of debate on the agenda since is the Turkish state not evacuating its Consulate in Mosul as ISIS gangs entered the city. Question marks raised with Southern Kurdistan Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani saying: “At the night when incidents erupted in Mosul, I talked to Mr. Davutoğlu (then PM of Turkey) a few times and he asked me to keep an eye on the personnel there. I called the Consulate twice and asked them what we could do for them. I offered them evacuation but they said they were fine and did not need help.” These words were kind of evidence for a play Turkey staged in Mosul.

While ISIS had just launched attacks on Kobanê on September 15, 2014, Turkey got back the Consulate staff from Girê Spî (Tal Ebyad) in return for providing support to the attacks on Kobanê. This was the first time a state was rescuing its citizens from ISIS alive. While Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan said “the Consulate personnel were saved with a successful operation” and then Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu described it as a “diplomatic victory”, ISIS said “”this was a deal made by two states at table. Turkey's non-participation in the US-led coalition has been taken positively”, which simply manifested the cooperation behind the scenes.

By taking Mosul, ISIS did not only seize the oil wells and the most ancient city in the Middle East, but also the most strategic region it needed to reach the border of the Islamic State it was projecting in the Middle East, as well as the large numbers of weapons, tanks and armored vehicles and large quantities of ammunition that the US had left in the city after 2003's intervention.

After taking control of Mosul, ISIS gangs changed their name from Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant to Islamic State, and declared their caliphate. The weapons ISIS seized in Mosul were helpful in the following invasions of Tal Afar, Shengal, Makhmur, Raqqa and many other areas.

Following some 2,5 years of invasion, the Mosul operation was brought to the agenda amid debates on how it would be started and which forces would join the campaign.

As preparations were underway for the launch of the campaign to liberate Mosul, the Turkish state imposed itself for participation in the operation to take its share. While Erdoğan stated that Turkey would join the operation, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi called on Turkey to evacuate the camp they had established in Bashiqa taking advantage of Mosul's invasion. Following debates between Erdoğan and Abadi, the US and Pentagon said “the Iraqi central government will decide on which forces will join the operation”, which served as a declaration that Turkey would not participate in the operation. Erdoğan and the ruling AKP government still insisted that “we will be both in the operation and at the table” in an effort to appease the public opinion.

Following preparations, the Iraqi army, Iraqi anti-terror units, Iraqi police, Shia militia Hashd al-Shaabi, peshmerga forces, some forces under Hashd al-Watani (affiliated to Atheel al-Nujaifi that handed Mosul over to ISIS, was trained by Turkey in Bashiqa and changed its name to Nineveh Guards with the launch of the campaign) and some Sunni tribes joined the operation for Mosul. The US-led anti-ISIS coalition gave aerial support for the operation in which some 600 US soldiers provided consultancy on land.

30 thousand Iraqi soldiers, Shia militia and peshmerga fighters, 3 thousand from Nineveh Guards and 8 thousand from Sunni tribes joined the operation for Mosul that was launched with US artillery strikes at 01:40 on 17 October 2016 night.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the launch of the operation which was started from two branches, with Iraqi forces and Hashd al-Shaabi advancing from southeast and peshmerga and Sunni groups from northwest.

Peshmerga forces discontinued the campaign after retaking the areas they had held before the ISIS attack. The operation for Mosul city center was completely managed by the Iraqi army and police forces supported by the international coalition.

On the other hand, Hashd al-Shaabi forces, whose participation in the operation was harshly opposed by the Turkish state and KDP since the very beginning, joined the campaign on the southeastern front. On 26 November 2016, Hashd al-Shaabi was granted legal status by the Iraqi parliament and they were involved in the Tal Afar operation.

The Mosul city was officially freed from ISIS control on 29 June, 2017. The main issue from now on is how the city will be administered, as this will also influence the administration of the Iraqi regions with unclear status, and form the perspective for a solution to the long-continued problems between Shia-Sunni and Kurdish segments.

Should Mosul fail to develop a permanent solution on this issue, further tensions and conflicts will be unavoidable and Iraq will continue to lose blood in a new internal crisis.