The key subject of the Mosul operation is who will be joining. I am in Irbil and here a covert to open competition is observed in this regard. The Iraqi army and peshmerga forces are the leading names on the U.S.-led anti-Daesh colation's ground operation plan. But the real question is how the U.S. will position al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Shiite forces) and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) as well as what role al-Hashd al-Watani (Sunni forces) will play.

Yet, a plan similar to the construction of a safe zone along the Azaz-Jarablus line where Turkey launched an operation in the north of Syria should also be implemented in Iraq. Sunni elements should take place in the Mosul operation and the Daesh elements to sneak in among the civilians should be eliminated this way. However, the U.S. is in no way opening up to this idea. In fact it gets incredibly disturbed about it being expressed. Instead, it is trying to include the PKK in the game in a way that it will cause a Kurdish civil war in Northern Iraq one day or another – it is trying to position the more than 40-strong Shiite militia group within al-Hashd al-Shaabi, like the Badr Organization, which Daesh would seem an amateur in violence in comparison, as the lead actor of the Mosul operation. These killers who hang Sunnis from their bodies in city centers and pour petrol over them and burn them for all to see, are today given Iraq military uniforms and made a legitimate part of the operation. Also, the Iranian effect on al-Hashd al-Shaabi and Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Qasem Soleimani being in a position to give direct orders to these groups, shows that the other official behind the proxies is Iran.