Iraqi army in control in Mosul, despite ISIS sleeper cells

Amira Sherif

Iraq’s security authorities have assigned an army unit the job of controlling the northern province of Nineveh and responsibility for the security situation in the western part of Mosul, the provincial capital of the province.

This development came hard on the heels of the victories the Iraqi army scored against the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) which occupied large swaths of Iraq in June 2014.

Federal Police troops were, at the same time, moved to the northern province of Kirkuk to beef up security in it.

Federal Police surveillance teams have already started leaving Mosul to check conditions outside Nineveh in preparation for the withdrawal of the Fifth Federal Police Unit from the city, according to Loai al-Gazawi, the commander of the unit.

The unit will be replaced, he added, by the 20th army unit.

Al-Gazawi noted that unit 20 of the 66th Army Battalion would take over in Badush, a village in the western part of Mosul, after the withdrawal of the Federal Police troops from the village.

Lieutenant Colonel, Abdel Salam al-Jabouri, said, meanwhile, that the command of the Special Joint Operations had decided to summon the 20th unit from Kirkuk’s vicinity and deploy it in the western part of Mosul to be responsible for the security file in the area.

Federal Police, he said, would replace the unit in Kirkuk, along with local police and anti-terrorism troops.

He said standing behind these changes were special considerations at the security command.

Al-Jabouri noted that locals in Mosul had strong confidence in the security agencies in their city because of the good way the members of these agencies treated city residents since the liberation of the city from ISIS occupation six months ago.

Iraqi Prime Minister, Haidar al-Abadi, declared in December last year the total liberation of Iraq’s joint border with Syria.

By this, he said, the war against ISIS came to an end.

This was when the Iraqi Special Joint Operations Command declared the liberation of all Iraqi territories from ISIS occupation.

Upon declaring Mosul’s liberation, Abadi said Iraqis had the right to be proud.

Nonetheless, some ISIS sleeper cells continue to be present in some areas in Nineveh.

According to some security reports, ISIS leaders keep their movement restricted to mountainous areas difficult to reach in northern Iraq.

The reports talk about the small mountain ridge in the northeastern part of Iraq. The ridge, the reports say, has turned into the main point of concentration for ISIS leaders and militants, being safe for them.

Iraqi security officials say ISIS militants migrated to the area in large numbers under intense shelling by Iraqi troops liberating Mosul for nine months.

ISIS is no longer powerful, having lost a large part of the armaments it seized upon the occupation of Mosul in 2014 and also a large number of its militants.

These armaments were destroyed by Iraqi troops liberating Iraqi cities occupied by the terrorist organization before.