The Iraqi parliament voted on Monday on the formation of a fact-finding mission to tackle the recent security unrest in the Nineveh province.
The legislature began appointing members to a committee aimed at uncovering the shortcomings that led to the security breaches in Mosul and several other western regions that saw ISIS terror attacks.
Former head of the parliamentary security and defense committee Hakem al-Zameli revealed that American forces deliberately left several border regions without proper security.
“The recent days revealed suspicious terrorist activity along the Iraqi-Syrian border,” he said in a statement.
“We had previously warned of this,” he added, citing the recent car bombing in Mosul.
He also said that the rugged terrain near the border posed difficulties for authorities and made it suitable for terrorist infiltration.
He therefore, warned of a possible spike in smuggling and trafficking operations, calling on the commander of the armed forces to draft an immediate plan to secure the region stretching from Mosul to the Syrian border.
Armed groups expert Hisham al-Hashemi, meanwhile, noted to Asharq Al-Awsat that the ISIS threat in Iraq still stands.
“ISIS’ military and organizational structure was permanently crippled, but it has not been destroyed,” he remarked.
“The terrorists have shown a remarkable ability to recover and regroup after heavy losses in Iraq,” he added.
He attributed this quality to the group’s ideology and constant communication among its leaderships in Iraq.
“Reports have confirmed that ISIS may have been temporarily weakened on the organizational level in al-Anbar, Nineveh, Salaheddine, Diayala and the Baghdad belt,” Hashemi revealed.
Other reports have spoken of new strategies and tactics the group is adopting in various regions, he stated.
“The group did not completely lose the war. It lost battles on the ground in cities and inhabited villages. The challenge now lies before armed forces to prepare society to shun ISIS ideology,” he continued.
Separately, a criminal court in Iraq sentenced five terrorists to death after charging them over a car bombing at a military checkpoint in Baghdad.
The detainees confessed to their allegiance to ISIS, as well as planning and carrying out the bombing.
