Terrorism & Security : As Mosul falls to ISIS militants, doubts over US-trained Iraqi security forces

 MESOP : MOSUL & KURDISTAN IN DANGER

Militants from ISIS, an al Qaeda offshoot, now control much of Iraq’s largest city in the north, underscoring the group’s growing strength and the failure of Iraqi troops to repel insurgents. – By Ariel Zirulnick, Staff writer / June 10, 2014 – Middle East Editor –  Insurgents overran much of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul Tuesday, seizing the provincial government headquarters, the airport, police stations, and prisons as members of the Iraqi army shed their uniforms and fled. 

The capture of Mosul, described by news outlets as either Iraq’s second- or third-largest city, underlines the growing strength of sectarian and extremist insurgencies in Iraq, and casts doubt on the capabilities of the US-trained Iraqi security forces. 

Charles Lister, a senior fellow with the Brookings Institute in Doha who studies extremist groups, told the Washington Post that this will prompt questions about whether the US should continue sending military equipment to the Iraqi government.

[Iraqi Prime Minister Nour] al-Maliki is urging the United States to deliver more advanced weaponry, but ISIS fighters have already been seen riding round in U.S.-supplied Humvees in other areas they control, and much of the weaponry captured in this latest battle is likely to be American, Lister said.

“Washington will be questioning how to move forward in terms of supporting the Iraqi army in its fight against terrorism,” he said. “Every time ISIS captures territory, it’s a reminder that it does so using weapons that have fallen into the hands of the forces the U.S. is trying to counter in the first place.”

Mr. Maliki reportedly called on parliament to declare a state of emergency in Mosul and impose martial law across the entire country amid a larger campaign by the group, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), across the country. Agence France-Presse reports that ISIS has launched offensives in Nineveh, Anbar, Diyala, Salaheddin, and Baghdad provinces in the last week.

ISIS is an evolution of Al Qaeda in Iraq, which was largely pushed underground by the time of the US withdrawal. But ISIS reemerged in Syria after the civil war there broke out, and has resurfaced in Iraq. Earlier this year the group stormed the city of Fallujah, where the US fought some of its fiercest battles of the Iraq war, and swaths of Anbar Province.

While losing Fallujah was a blow for Maliki, its significance was partially symbolic. But Mosul, the capital of Nineveh Province, is the commercial hub of northern Iraq and a cornerstone of US post-war stability efforts. However, it has long been considered one of the most dangerous cities in Iraq, with various insurgent groups establishing a foothold there. http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Security-Watch/terrorism-security/2014/0610/As-Mosul-falls-to-ISIS-militants-doubts-over-US-trained-Iraqi-security-forces