Parliament panel to impeach federal police commander over Mosul losses

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) An Iraqi parliament panel intends to interrogate the commander of Federal Police forces over “delinquency” in field operations during the eight-month war against Islamic State militants in Mosul.

The parliament’s Security and Defense Committee said Wednesday it was planning to interpellate Lt. Gen. Shaker Jawdat over “dereliction” during operations to liberate Mosul.

Aljournal News quoted Hakem al-Zamili, the committee’s chairman, saying that “losses sustained by the Federal Police are the gravest compared to other security troops, which is evidence to his (Jawdat’s) frail military command in battles”.

“Interrogating Jawdat is not to be counted as  politically targeted, but rather a legislative and national responsibility towards the Iraqi people,” said al-Zamili.

Jawdat had scathingly fired back at earlier criticisms from Zamili as the battle in Mosul headed towards its end, arguing that his criticisms were driven by political and partisan motivations.

Responding to Zamili’s argument that Jawdat was never at the front line of battles, a statement by the police service said Jawdat remained on field for five months “and never left the field a single hour”.

Federal Police forces have been a significant contributor to the Iraq joint forces that battled IS in Mosul from mid October and until the declaration of victory by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi last Monday.

Iraqi security commanders have abstained from stating the exact numbers of deaths among personnel throughout the Mosul campaign, and had urged the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) not to include security casualties in their monthly count. The U.S. Central Command had said that 774 Iraqi security members died in Mosul until the end of March.