U.S. is eager to pore over Mosul data

Analysts to seek intelligence trove as ISIS flees city

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is sending dozens of additional intelligence analysts to Iraq to pore over a trove of information that is expected to be recovered in the offensive to recapture Mosul from the Islamic State, data that could offer new clues about possible terrorist attacks in Europe.

The analysts will have several immediate priorities: Share with the Iraqi military any information crucial to the fight in Mosul; pass along insights useful to U.S. officials planning an attack on Raqqa, the Islamic State’s de facto capital in eastern Syria; hunt for clues about the location of the group’s shadowy leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi; and search for any information about terrorist cells in Europe and any attacks they may be plotting.

Maj. Gen. Gary J. Volesky, commander of U.S. ground forces in Iraq, has called Mosul the Islamic State’s Iraqi “crown jewel.” Noting that the militants had been entrenched there for more than two years, he added, “Clearly, there’s going to be intelligence that will be able to be exploited.”

European intelligence and counterterrorism offi- cials said they were eagerly awaiting data gleaned from computer hard drives, cellphones, recruiting files and other sources after Iraqi forces advance into the city in coming weeks. These officials fear an influx of foreign fighters fleeing the campaigns against Mosul and Raqqa.

“If we get a phone off of a dead ISIL fighter in Manbij and it has a number of telephone numbers into a particular capital or city around the world, we share that information with the coalition members so that they can conduct their own investigation,” Brett H. McGurk, President Barack Obama’s envoy to the coalition fighting the Islamic State, said this month. “This is now really starting to work at light speed, although we want to speed it up.”

It is unclear if Islamic State leaders in Mosul will try to destroy any of their electronic or paper records before Iraqi forces and their U.S. advisers can seize them. The Islamic State maintains prodigious and meticulous records.

U.S. officials acknowledge that they face a daunting task in gathering, analyzing and disseminating to Iraqi and Western intelligence services a collection of information from Mosul that is expected to dwarf the 20 terabytes of data retrieved so far in Manbij. One terabyte is equal to the contents of a million books.