Iraqi probe panel finds Maliki, other officials responsible for Mosul fall

A parliamentary investigation panel on Sunday found former prime minister Nuri al-Maliki and dozens of security and political officials responsible for the fall of Iraq's northern city of Mosul to Islamic State (IS) militant group, officials said.

"The parliamentary panel tasked with probing the fall of Mosul to IS militants has finalized its report after the majority of its 24 members voted in the report," a parliament official told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The panel's report showed that more than 30 political and security officials were held responsible for the June 2014 collapse of the security forces in Mosul, some 400 km north of Baghdad, including Maliki, former Mosul governor Atheel al-Nujaifi, former acting defense minister Sadoun al-Dulaimi, former army chief of staff General Babakir Zebari and former commander of provincial operations Lieutenant General Mahdi al-Gharrawi, in addition to other senior officials, the official said.

The parliamentary panel did not disclose details about the findings in its report, the official said, adding that the report was later presented to the Parliament Speaker Salim al-Jubouri in order to discuss the report in the coming parliament sessions before referring it to the judiciary for legal action.

Meanwhile, the speaker office issued a statement saying that "the report about the fall of Mosul will be presented at the next session of the Council of Representatives, which will be in public, and no one is above the law."

The security situation in Iraq has begun to drastically deteriorate since June 10, when bloody clashes broke out between the Iraqi security forces and the IS group, an al-Qaida offshoot, which took control of the country's northern province of Nineveh and later seized swathes of territories after Iraqi security forces abandoned their posts in other Sunni provinces.