Directorate 14, also referred to as the Directorate of Special Operations or M14, was a branch of the Iraqi Intelligence Service

Iraqi Intelligence Service

The Iraqi Intelligence Service , also known as the Mukhabarat, General Directorate of Intelligence, or Party Intelligence, was the main state intelligence organization in Iraq under Saddam Hussein...

 under President Saddam Hussein

Saddam Hussein

Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...

. Headquartered in Salman Pak

Salman Pak

Salman Pak is a city approximately 15 miles south of Baghdad near a peninsula formed by a broad eastward bend of the Tigris River. It is named after Salman the Persian, a companion of Muhammad who is buried there....

, this branch was one of the largest and most important directorates within the Iraqi Intelligence Service, and was responsible for the most secret and sensitive operations undertaken outside of Iraq, including espionage

Espionage

Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...

 and assassination

Assassination

To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...

. Directorate 14 was also responsible for the training of officers for operations of this nature. It is also reported to have occasionally worked with the Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

ian opposition group, the People's Mujahedin of Iran

People's Mujahedin of Iran

The People's Mujahedin of Iran is a terrorist militant organization that advocates the overthrow of the Islamic Republic of Iran....

. The last known director for Directorate 14 was Muhammad Khudayr Sabah Al Dulaymi, and according to the Iraqi National Congress

Iraqi National Congress

The Iraqi National Congress is an umbrella Iraqi opposition group led by Ahmed Chalabi. It was formed with the aid and direction of the United States government following the Gulf War, for the purpose of fomenting the overthrow of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.-History:INC was set up following the...

, was previously led by Brig Nouri Al Douri (Abu Ibrahim) from Jadriya.

Before the 2003 invasion of Iraq

2003 invasion of Iraq

The 2003 invasion of Iraq , was the start of the conflict known as the Iraq War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 21 days of major combat operations...

, Directorate 14 was entrusted with oversight of the Challenge Project

Challenge Project

The Challenge Project was an insurgency plan orchestrated by Directorate 14. Special Operations, a branch of Iraqi Intelligence Service. The Challenge Project was Saddam Hussein's pre-US invasion backup plan for establishing a long-term insurgency designed to inhibit the American occupation of...

. According to the Iraq Survey Group

Iraq Survey Group

The Iraq Survey Group was a fact-finding mission sent by the multinational force in Iraq after the 2003 invasion of Iraq to find the alleged weapons of mass destruction alleged to be possessed by Iraq that had been the main ostensible reason for the invasion. Its final report is commonly called...

 report:

M14, directed by Muhammad Khudayr Sabah Al Dulaymi, was responsible for training and conducting special operations missions. It trained Iraqis, Palestinians, Syrians, Yemeni, Lebanese, Egyptian, and Sudanese operatives in counterterrorism, explosives, marksmanship, and foreign operations at its facilities at Salman Pak. Additionally, M14 oversaw the “Challenge Project,” a highly secretive project regarding explosives. Sources to date have not been able to provide sufficient details regarding the “Challenge Project.”

The report also stated that the Directorate was engaged in assassination attempts, including those of US President George H. W. Bush

George H. W. Bush

George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...

 and Husayn Kamil, an Iraqi defector. It may have also been behind the assassination of Talib Al Suheil, an Iraqi dissident killed in 1994 in Beirut

Beirut

Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...

.

Soon after the 2003 invasion, Newsweek

Newsweek

Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...

reported that a memo from the Directorate, dated October 29, 2002, raised the possibility that they had an informant inside the US intelligence community before the war: "one of our sources in the United States, with a high level of reliability, says the CIA and the so-called opposition have a joint plan to bring 'quislings' to Iraq from the north and south to gather information and await future missions. Our informant will be one of them."

Structure

According to the Iraq Survey Group:

• Special Operations Department, composed of a foreign and a domestic section, performed government-sanctioned assassinations inside or outside of Iraq.
• The “Tiger Group” was similar to Special Operations, except that it was primarily composed of suicide bombers.
• The Training Department provided training for all IIS officers going abroad.
• The Counterterrorism Department handled counterterrorism activities in Iraq and at embassies; reportedly, it disarmed terrorists hijacking a Sudanese airliner from Saddam International Airport.
• The Administrative Department provided support services such as administration, finances, communications, and logistics.
• The Anti-Iranian Department infiltrated operatives into Iran for intelligence collection and operated against Iranian groups attempting to enter Iraq.