ISIS: Our Goal is Not Mosul, Our Goal is Baghdad

(AINA) -14.6.2014 – Emerging information about the fall of Mosul to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (A.K.A. ISIS or Da’esh) strongly points to a conspiracy between ISIS, Ba’ath holdovers in Mosul and Sunnis. Mosul is predominantly Sunni and is a bastion of the Ba’ath party, which formerly ruled Iraq under Saddam Hussein.

Atheel al-Nujaifi, the hardline Sunni governor of the Nineveh Governorate reportedly fled Mosul ahead of the ISIS attack (AINA 2014-06).Yesterday the Iraqi Parliament met in an emergency session on the Mosul crisis, but only 128 of 325 members of parliament came to the session and the session was cancelled for lack of a quorum. Nearly all of the absent MPs were opposed to al-Maliki, the Shiite Prime Minister. Noticeably absent were Kurds, Sunni groups and Ba’athists.

AINA contacted Amy (name changed), a resident of Mosul, via e-mail. According to Amy, ISIS gained full control of Mosul only with the help of Ba’athists and other Sunni Islamic groups. It is the Ba’athists, she said, who are now running some or all of the government institutions in Mosul, while the majority of ISIS have left for their assault on Baghdad.The ISIS assault on Mosul occurred in two phases. The first assault targeted the “right” side of the city and the fighting between the Iraqi Army and ISIS lasted 3 days. ISIS prevailed and drove the Iraqi army to the “left” side of the city. There the battle lasted only three hours before senior Iraqi army officers abandoned their posts and fled. This caused the rest of the army soldiers, all Shiites, to abandon their positions and Mosul and flee.

Upon entering Mosul, said Amy, ISIS leaders said “‘We come to liberate you from the rule of Nouri al-Maliki and the Shiites. Our goal is not Mosul, our goal is Baghdad.'”

According to Amy, the people of Mosul celebrated the coming of ISIS, and the war there is between Sunnis and Shiites. “I feel very sad and worried,” said Amy. “Mosul is completely quiet now, but it is the calm before the storm.” http://www.aina.org/mailinglist.html