Iraq seeks U.S. aid to rebuild Mosul
But U.S. help is unlikely to meet the country’s needs.
H A MAM A L-A L I L , I RAQ — During a visit south of Mosul on Monday, a senior U.S. official praised territorial gains against the Islamic State group in Iraq, but local officials cautioned more aid is needed to rebuild on the heels of victories against the extremists.
T h e M o s u l f i g h t i s a p p r o a c h i n g i t s “f i n a l stages,” Brett McGurk, special presidential envoy for the global coalition against IS, said during a meeting with Iraqi military and civilian officials at a water treatment plant near the town of Hamam al-Alil.
“The world is now seei n g t h a t ( I r a q i ) s o l d i e r s are completely destroying Daesh,” McGurk said, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group that is also referred to as IS, ISIS and ISIL. He described the fight to retake Mosul, which was launched nearly seven months ago, as one of the most difficult urban battles since World War II.
B u t t h e men who h a d gathered to receive McGurk and U. S. Ambassador to Iraq Douglas Silliman were dressed in suits, not fatigues and they had come asking for aid, not weapons.
With the fight against IS in Iraq about to enter its fourth year, more than half of the territory the extremists once held is now under government control, but with those advances has come greater demand for reconstruction money.
The U.S. military footprint in Iraq has steadily grown in the build-up to and throughout the Mosul operation, but U.S. funds for humanitarian relief and stabilization remain a fraction of defense spending in the IS fight.
“We are looking for more support as the west side of the c it y will be liberated soon,” Maj. Gen. Muhammed al-Shimary with Nineveh Operations Command told McGurk after thanking him for U.S. assistance.
McGurk said the water treatment plant that now provides water to more than 100,000 people in Nineveh is “symbolic of this entire effort that we’ve embarked upon to defeat Daesh.”
“Here in Nineveh we have hundreds of projects like this funded by our coalition,” he said, adding that a similar list of reconstruction projects was being drawn up for the IS-held Syrian city of Raqqa as U.S.-led coalition forces surround it ahead of an operation to retake it.
But overall, U.S. fiscal contributions to Iraqi reconstruction are unlikely to meet the country’s needs. Iraq continues to struggle with an economic crisis and the central government has called on the international community to provide the bulk of the funds.
Last year under the Obama a dmini s t r a t i o n, McGurk emphasized the need for a balance between “speed and sustainabilit y” in the fight against IS.
“Before you launch a major operation you have to have in place who is going to hold the city, who is going to govern the city,” he told the Senate foreign relations committee during testimony in June 2016.
However, President Donald Trump has pledged to accelerate the fight against IS. While the White House hasn’t released an official overhaul of the IS fight, since taking office Trump has handed g re ate r dec i s i on making power regarding troop levels in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan to the Pentagon.
Additionally, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has emphasized the limited role the U.S. will play in reconstruction in Iraq and Syria.
“As a coalition we are not in the business of nation-building or reconstruction,” Tillerson said in March.