Former Iraqi premier Nouri al-Maliki on Tuesday dismissed as “worthless” a parliamentary report blaming him and others for the militant takeover of second city Mosul last year.
“There is no value in the result that emerged from the parliamentary investigation committee on the fall of Mosul, which was dominated by political differences and was not objective,” Maliki said on his Facebook page, AFP reported.
“What happened in Mosul was a conspiracy planned in Ankara, then the conspiracy moved to Arbil,” Maliki said in a second post, referring to the capitals of Turkey and Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region.
Islamic State extremists seized Mosul in June 2014, then overran a third of the country in a devastating offensive that swept security forces aside.
The report on the disaster was presented to the parliament speaker Salim al-Juburi on Sunday, and lawmakers voted to refer it to the judiciary the following day.
Maliki, now a vice president, is widely viewed as having played a major role in the disaster, angering Sunni Arabs who say they were marginalized and targeted by his government, which contributed to IS’s success.
