NINEWA: MURDER OF ASSISTANT GOVERNOR WILL FURTHER

C O N F I D E N T I A L BAGHDAD 003035

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/31/2018
TAGS: PGOV PTER PREL PHUM KDEM IZ
SUBJECT: NINEWA: MURDER OF ASSISTANT GOVERNOR WILL FURTHER
DEGRADE PROVINCIAL GOVERNANCE, REDUCE U.S. ACCESS

Classified By: Ninewa PRT Leader Alex Laskaris, Reasons 1.4 (B) and (D)

This is a Ninewa Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) message.


1. (C) Summary: Assailants gunned down Ninewa's Assistant
Governor for Technical Affairs September 17 outside his
mosque. Shamil Younis was a prominent Sunni Arab working for
Governor Kashmoula and a close contact of PRT Mosul. A
distraught Kashmoula told us that Younis was the seventeenth
of his senior staff members to be murdered. While the
perpetrators have not been apprehended, the killing is
consistent with AQI attempts to destabilize the province. In
the short term, it will discourage qualified applicants from
seeking senior civil service positions and dealing with the
PRT and U.S. military officials. In the longer term, such
violence could further degrade the quality and further reduce
the ethnic diversity of provincial governance. End summary.


2. (C) Ninewa Assistant Governor for Technical Affairs
Shamil Younis was murdered the evening of September 17. He
was gunned down after prayers at a Mosul mosque. The
assailants reportedly were three young men who followed him
to the mosque, then waited for him to emerge. Younis was
part of Governor Duraid Kashmoula,s inner circle; a
distraught Kashmoula told us the day after the killing that
&they killed my brother, they broke one of my wings and now
how can I fly?8 Younis was also a longstanding PRT contact,
someone who gave us insight ) though he had limited
influence ) on the process of budget execution.


3. (C) Although there were witnesses to the killing, there
are currently no suspects. Kashmoula thinks it unlikely
anyone will be held accountable for the crime. By his count,
this is the seventeenth member of his staff to be murdered
during his tenure. For our part, this is the second time in
three months that a senior provincial official disposed to
work with us has been murdered. On June 23, DG for
Municipalities Khaled Mahmoud, also a Sunni Arab like Shamil
Younis, was killed in similar fashion. Unlike Shamil, Khaled
had an antagonistic relationship with the governor. However,
Khaled and Shamil both had roles in the awarding of
provincial contracts, so it is possible that one or both were
targeted as a result of business disputes.


4. (C) Two other provincial officials with longstanding ties
to the PRT and U.S. military may also be departing the scene.
Mayor Najim Abdulla al-Jubouri of Tal Afar has reportedly
resigned his position and is in Dahuk pursuing emigration to
the United States. (Note: We do not know if he has a valid
visa yet.) Mayor Zuhair Muhsin Abdul Aziz al-Araji of Mosul
has told us that he is considering a similar exit. Zuhair
and Najim maintain good relations with Coalition Forces and
are generally responsive to the needs of their constituents,
although a lack of financial support to their cities from the
province has made them highly reliant on USG funding.


5. (C) Mosul sanitation workers were threatened by
insurgents on September 12 and told that they would be killed
if they continued to pick up trash in the city. The governor
and the head of the Ninewa Operations Command (NOC) are
currently discussing options for addressing this threat.


6. (C) Comment: While we don't know for sure, this incident
is consistent with past murders ascribed to AQI, meant to
further destabilize provincial governance. Short-term
implications of Shamil,s murder include: 1) the number and
quality of technocrats willing to serve in the provincial
government will continue to fall; 2) the number and quality
of provincial government officials willing to engage with PRT
and U.S. military will decline; and 3) the opacity of the
budget execution process will increase, and the budget
execution rate will likely slow even further. Over the
longer term, the aggregate implications of the assassination
of prominent civil servants, especially Sunni Arabs, are
worrisome: 1) the quality of governance in an already
poorly-run province will continue to drop as qualified
officials leave out of fear of AQI assassination and would-be
applicants avoid government service ) especially Sunni
Arabs; and 2) the provincial administration may become less
ethnically representative and more reliant on, and responsive
to, the Kurdish Democratic Party and the KRG agenda. End
Comment

CROCKER