Photo by Mstyslav Chernov via Wikimedia Commons Iraqi army convoy in Northern Iraq in 2016
Pakistan helped Iraq in a number of ways in the Arab country’s fight against the ISIS or Daesh, which this week saw liberation of Mosul from the terror group.
Iraqi Ambassador to Pakistan Ali Yasin Muhammad Karim Islamabad helped his conflict-hit country with intelligence on terrorists, supply of arms and ammunition as well as military medical assistance during the Iraqi struggles.
Karim told journalists that some of the Iraqi pilots, who took part in action against the ISIS, had been trained in Pakistan.
The Iraqi envoy’s revelation is the first known account of Pakistan’s help in Baghdad’s fight against militancy as it tries to wriggle out of the multiple conflicts that have decimated the country in the last decade.
The ISIS controlled Mosul, the second largest city for several years and it was only this week that Iraq was able to wrest back the city with the help of its international partners and after much bloodshed. Human Rights organizations have condemned killing of innocent civilians ad treatment of people at the hands of Iraqi soldiers and militia.
The ambassador underscored the importance of continuing intelligence cooperation between Iraq and Pakistan. “We share the same enemy,” Karim said.
He also expressed appreciation for Pakistan’s neutral stance on the ongoing Middle Eastern conflicts.
Pakistan, which went through one of the most devastating Taliban insurgency in the tribal areas and parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhua, has recently eliminated hundreds of militants in major military operations.
Meanwhile, neighboring Afghanistan has seen an expanding footprint of ISIS in addition to the long-running Afghan Taliban insurgency. Pakistan’s help is seen as critical to any effort to help establish peaceful and secure Afghanistan after decades of wars and internal conflicts.
The United States reported this week that a senior ISIS leader was killed in an operation in Afghanistan. The U.S. has been helping Afghanistan for a long time but the Afghan security forces and political leaders have failed to put up a concerted national fight against the Afghan Taliban and the ISIS in their country.
