BAGHDAD
A final report on last year’s fall of Mosul to Daesh militants was submitted Monday to Iraq’s Commission on Public Integrity (CPI) and Supreme Court after receiving parliamentary endorsement one day earlier.
Iraq’s parliament approved the report on Monday by a large majority, after which it was referred to the CPI and the court for further investigation and a final decision.
The report, prepared by an independent commission set up last November, accuses former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Vice-President Osama al-Nujaifi of gross negligence in failing to stop the extremist group from capturing Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city.
The report goes on to call for further investigations into other senior Iraqi officials suspected of negligence, including a former defense minister, a former governor of Nineveh (the province in which Mosul is located), a former army chief-of-staff and a former ground forces commander.
In June of last year, Daesh militants overran Mosul, prompting Iraqi troops -- who were heavily armed and numerically superior -- to flee before the onslaught.
Following the spectacular military victory, the group went on to capture large swathes of territory in both Iraq and Syria.
Massacres perpetrated by Daesh in the latter half of 2014 -- along with the forced deportation of minority populations from areas under its control -- led the U.S. and its allies to establish a coalition last September tasked with combating the violent extremist group.
Over the last year, the U.S.-led coalition has carried out numerous airstrikes against Daesh targets in both Iraq and Syria.
Last week, after reaching an agreement with Ankara, U.S. warplanes began striking Daesh targets from Turkish airbases.
