The Pentagon recently announced it sent several intelligence analysts to Iraq to pour over and examine the plethora of information that has already been obtained from fleeing, captured, and killed ISIS militants with the prediction that more intelligence information will be obtained in the battle for Mosul.
al-Baghdadi, the self-appointed caliph leader, is in hiding somewhere in Mosul with a $10 million bounty on his head. The Pentagon is sending a small army of intelligence analysts to scour information on him as well as ISIS battle and contingency plans; this will no doubt leave him with an extremely slim chance of escaping Mosul undetected.
The intelligence analysts will also provide the Iraqis with the information they need regarding h the battle for Mosul as well as providing US officials with information on how to proceed in the planning of the Raqqa [Syria] offensive.
President Obama’s special envoy to Iraq, Brett McGurk, commented on the operation to ensnare al-Baghdadi,
”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. This is now really starting to work at light speed, although we want to speed it up.”
Intelligence already captured in earlier offensives yielded a boon of information regarding the details on 40,000 ISIS fighters from 120 different countries and included senior ISIS leadership. According to Major General Gary Volesky, the intelligence gathered in Mosul
“[I]s going to be intelligence that will be able to be exploited.”
That exploited intelligence will be scoured for information leading to the whereabouts of the infamous ISIS leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as well as any plans of attacks to be carried out in Europe by terrorist cells.
[revad2]
