IRAQ
civil and military TASK FORCE
to security MOSUL dam
Task Force Praesidium deployed in Iraq
into International Coalition anti-ISIS
Mario RENNA e Antonio MORLUPI
The Italian Troops
of the Task Force
are deployed
within the operation
‘Prima Parthica’
And are tasked to protect
- with the local forcesthe large building site
set up by Trevi
T
he Mosul Dam on the Tigris
River, in Iraqi Kurdistan, is
the basin enabling a relevant
part of Iraq’s power grid to work. It
is also a potential goal to reconquer
for ISIS, which is just a few dozens of
kilometres away. In summer 2014, the
Caliphate’s militia had taken over the
basin for a very short time before they
were chased away by the Peshmerga
fighters who are still defending
their positions against the enemy.
This huge levee is more than three kilometres long and has a capacity of 10
billion cubic metres of water. Saddam
Hussein had it built in the 80s. It is now
potentially threatened not only by ISIS
but also by the very landform of the
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area, which comprises thick layers of hydrosoluble gypsum and anhydride weakening its foundations. For a very large
area inhabited by one and a half million
people, this constitutes a disastrous flood
risk - as the quantity of out-of-control
water would exceed hundreds of millions of tons - and a black out risk. Furthermore, the war has led to long years
of insufficient maintenance, which has
always been necessary to counter the
digging effect caused by water. As a consequence, the situation has become so
critical that the authorities of Baghdad
have raised the alarm for the international community.
Thus, Italy has taken a two-fold action
to protect the dam. On the one hand, it
has deployed the Praesidium Task Force,
which is primarily composed of Bersaglieri (i.e. members of a rifle regiment
of the Italian army) belonging to the 6th
Aosta Mechanized Brigade. On the other, after an international bid organized
at the end of last year by the Ministry
of Water Resources of Iraq, Trevi - an
Italian company - has undertaken a contract to maintain and strengthen the infrastructure.
The Italian troops of the Task Force are
deployed within the operation ‘Prima
Parthica’, and are tasked to protect - together with the local forces - the large
building site set up by Trevi. The building
site will employ hundreds of technicians
for approximately 18 months to carry
out drilling operations and inject specific
concrete mixtures into the cavities that
have opened inside the strata on which
the dam foundations are positioned. In
addition to that, a series of delicate operations will be performed on the drainage
galleries, which are currently damaged.
The contract signed last March by Trevi
amounts to 273 million euros and provides for specialization courses to be administer to the local personnel who will
be using special drilling vehicles. A company belonging to the Trevi group will
manufacture the vehicles.
The 10-hectare base camp comprises
prefabricated modules and has remarkable perimeter protections. It is about to
be completed and will host, in addition
to the technicians, the military contingent charged with guarding the whole
compound. Surveillance activities will
be performed by armed patrols and
through state-of-the art electronic devices working 24 hours a day in a dangerous and demanding environment
also in terms of climate, with temperatures often reaching 50 degrees during
the day. Troops of the Praesidium Task
Force were already deployed in reconnaissance activities during the summer.
They will cooperate with the Peshmerga, many of whom have qualified at the
Erbil training centre. At this centre, for
several months male and female army
servicepersons have been training Iraqi
Kurdistan forces who are successfully
combating ISIS militias in southern Iraq.
By deploying the Bersaglieri of Trapani’s
6th Regiment, Italy has become the second country - after the United States –
in view of the amount of forces engaged
in the anti-ISIS coalition, with an overall
contingent of approximately 1,400 units.
Thus, operation ‘Prima Parthica’ is the
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most important operation in terms of
figures, considering that Defence has deployed about a thousand troops belonging to the four services in Lebanon and
in Afghanistan. The Praesidium Task
Force adds to the forces that already include trainers in Erbil, the Carabinieri
training Iraqi police forces in Baghdad,
the Air Task Force in Kuwait and the
NH90 helicopters of the Army Aviation
fulfilling tasks related to personnel recovery, namely rescue of wounded personnel.
The civilian-military joint venture supported by the Italian government is further proof of the important role Italy is
playing in the global coalition of more
than 40 countries against ISIS. The
two-day conference of last 21 July in
Washington provided the opportunity
for the Minister of Defence, Ms Pinot-
ti, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Mr Gentiloni, to acknowledge unanimously that role. With regard to the
military aspects, trainers of the Army
and Carabinieri deployed in Iraq have
trained more than 7,200 troops and
local police officers, who have mostly
been employed to fight against ISIS. The
Air Force has totalled more than 7,200
flight hours, with 1,250 sorties carried
out by Tornado, Predator, C130 and refuelling aircraft.
As regards the economic development of
the region, the operations to strengthen
the dam will have a considerable impact
in terms of both safe and constant energy – by supplying 750 megawatt-power
– and in terms of employment. In fact,
most of the work force will be recruited
locally, according to a well-established
modus operandi.
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Italy is the second most important Nation within
the International Coalition against ISIS in Iraq.
international commitment for the Italian
MoD. ‘By the end of next Autumn, 500
soldiers will be deployed to protect the
Mosul Dam while consolidation works are
executed on an infrastructure that has
strategic value for the region’, Mrs. Pinotti
added. In last May, she has paid a visit to
the Italian contingent in Iraq, accompanied
by General Graziano, the Italian Chief of
Defence.
At the summit, the Minister also highlighted
the importance of severing ISIS’ financial
sources while supporting moderate Islam
and fostering economic development. This
is exactly what Italy is doing at the Mosul
Dam. She also emphasized the need to
clear ISIS’ presence in the territories it
occupies, an essential step to stop terrorist
attacks and prevent terrorists from training
and spreading propaganda.
The Coalition members agreed on the
need to adopt political, diplomatic, and
economic measures to attack terrorism at
its roots with a synergistic approach and
to analyse the threat ISIS poses not only in
Syria and Iraq, and not only in the military
dimension.
On July 20 and 21, a Summit was held in
Washington, which was attended by the
Ministers of Defence and Foreign Affairs of
more than 40 nations.
They gathered to establish the coalition’s
priorities, the measures to fund the fight
against terrorism, and the military actions
required to tackle the threat posed by
foreign fighters.
Italy was represented by the Minister of
Defence, the Rt.Hon. Sen. Roberta Pinotti,
and by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and
International Cooperation, the Rt.Hon.
Paolo Gentiloni. ‘During the meeting, we
shared our views about the progress the
Coalition has made in the fight against ISIS
and stressed the important contribution the
Italian Armed Forces have provided since
we deployed the second largest contingent
in Iraq’, Minister Pinotti said. ‘Our military
trainers – she added – have trained most
of the Iraqi and Peshmerga troops, totaling
7,200 soldiers’.
In the framework of the Coalition, Italy
has increased the number of personnel
deployed on Operation Prima Parthica,
which is now the most significant
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