If the embattled northern city of Mosul is not administered well after its liberation from the Islamic State jihadist group, a new terrorist group will be born there, the premier of Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region warned on Wednesday.
“We had Al-Qaeda in Iraq yesterday, we have IS today and tomorrow we will have another group if Mosul doesn't have good administration,” Nechirvan Barzani said.
“What is really important and needs discussion is what happens in Mosul after IS,” he stressed.
Ten days into an offensive that is expected to be the biggest ground offensive in Iraq since the US-led invasion of 2003, IS fighters kept up their fierce defence of the southern approaches to Mosul.
The militants have been using suicide car-bombs extensively to fight off the advancing troops, according to Major General Najm al Jabouri, the commander of the Mosul operations.
Tens of thousands of fighters, including Iraqi federal troops and Kurdish peshmerga, are taking part in the assault being backed by a US-led coalition.
IS captured Mosul in June 2014 and declared it the capital of its Islamic 'caliphate' stretching across swathes of territory it seized in Iraq and Syria during a lightening offensive.
Speaking at the Middle East Research Institute (MERI) in Erbil on the tenth day of an international offensive to retake Mosul from ISIS, he complained that Kurdistan was paying the price for remaining part of Iraq. He said when it came to help from the World Bank, IMF or the international community, Iraq’s Kurds were getting the short end of the stick.
Barzani warned that if Mosul is not administered well after liberation it will become the birthplace of another terrorist group.
“We had al-Qaeda in Iraq yesterday, we have ISIS today and tomorrow we will have another group if Mosul is not going to have a good administrating system,” Barzani said.
“What is really important and needs discussion is what happens in Mosul after ISIS,” the Kurdish prime minister said.
