Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who is personally supervising the war effort in Mosul, today offered amnesty and cash to insurgents willing to put down their RPGs and repent.
Now, that’s taking ‘COIN’ a little too literally…
Seriously, I suspect the reason for the generosity is that nothing much has come out of the two military operations (called Lion’s Roar and Mother of Two Springs, believe it or not) the government has launched in the past few days.
According to reports (via Informed Comment), they have so far managed to arrest some 900 people and piss off local Sunni bigwigs who say the operations have targeted ex-Baathists and military officers instead of “al-Qaeda”.
I know getting to Mosul can be a bitch (I’ve been stuck in Speicher, too), but can somebody please hitch a ride up there and do some good old-fashioned reporting, so we don’t have to rely on this bullshit.
In case you’re interested, my take on Mosul is here.
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