Consequences of the refusal of the Nineveh Plain to hand over his duties to the army

Ahmed al-Dabbagh-Mosul

The past few days witnessed security tensions in the areas of Nineveh Plain in the north of the country after the Shabak 30 Brigade of the Popular Mobilization refused to implement the orders of Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi to withdraw from control points and hand over tasks to the Iraqi army.

Known areas of the Nineveh Plain surrounding areas of the city of Mosul on its northern and northwestern, and include the areas of Bartella and Bashiqa and the region of Kukjali and Hamdaniya.

Popular demonstrations
Residents of the Nineveh Plain took to the streets in demonstrations and sit-ins, following which they cut off the international highway linking the cities of Mosul and Erbil.

Muslim Fakhri, a resident of Bartella, said in his interview with Al Jazeera Net that the popular demonstrations came out in rejection of the decision to withdraw the Popular Mobilization from control points.

He attributed the reason for the demonstrations to two factors, as all the fighters of the brigade of 30 of the people of the Nineveh plain area, and therefore are entitled to protect their areas, pointing out that the past two years did not witness any security breach in the area after it was recovered from the control of the Islamic State in 2017.

He attributed the second reason to the great fear that a political deal between the central government and the Government of Iraqi Kurdistan to return their areas to the control of the Peshmerga in accordance with Article 140 of the Constitution of the country to the disputed areas.

Solution endeavors
On Tuesday (August 6th), Mosul witnessed the visit of prominent military leaders, including the Popular Mobilization Chief Faleh al-Fayyad, the Commission's leader Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes and the army chief of staff Othman al-Ghanmi in a bid to find a solution to the problem.

Despite reports that an agreement had been reached to keep the Hashd at checkpoints with a joint army and local police force, the Hashd denied it.

In an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera Net, Sami Bakdash, the 30th Brigade Operations Officer, said that the Hashd forces in the Nineveh Plain complied with the orders of the Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, but that the citizens of the plain rejected the decision.

Bakdash pointed out that the refusal of the citizens of the plain because of fear of the return of bombings and violations to their areas, as well as a great fear of the return of Peshmerga forces to the areas of the Nineveh Plain as was the case before 2014.

He stressed that the agreement of the Popular Mobilization Command, the government and the army to be the control of Kokkali (Mosul-Erbil) only joint between the crowd and the army and local police, to keep control of liberation and waterfalls as they are under the banner of the crowd 30, stressing that Wednesday witnessed the opening of all roads in the Nineveh Plain .

Government failure
Many analysts and officials attribute the crisis to the failure of the Mahdi government to enforce military orders.

MP Nineveh province Shirwan al-Dobardani said that instead of the crowd complying with the orders of Abdul Mahdi as commander in chief of the armed forces, everyone was surprised by high military delegations came to Mosul and met with the leaders of the Brigade 30 and demonstrators, pointing out that this will weaken the strength of the government and its application of laws, and encourage factions Others for non-compliance with military orders and rebellion.

Al-Dobardani believes the failure of the 30th Brigade to comply with the orders represents a disobedience and a challenge to the government and the failure to implement the Diwani Order 237 of the PMF.

The security expert and strategist Hisham al-Hashemi told Al Jazeera Net that what happened in the Nineveh plain is a military disobedience to orders, and that the population no longer trust the official security of the state, and want to protect themselves themselves.

On the options before Abdul-Mahdi to address the crisis, al-Hashemi pointed out that he was between two options: either contain the situation in ways that precede the implementation of the resolution on the sensitivity of the region and multiple ethnic identities, or the implementation of the most severe penalties against military leaders refusing orders.

Hashemi believes that Abdul Mahdi was not successful in containing the crisis, as it could be contained in a way that avoids the embarrassment of the government.

According to al-Hashemi, the crisis could have serious consequences for peaceful protesters in the Nineveh plain because of the need to align with an armed group in order to secure their rights and demands in the future.

Al-Hashemi concluded by noting that the crisis revealed that Abdul-Mahdi sided with political sectarianism at the expense of law enforcement, especially in light of this inaction.