page_title: Bafel Talabani
section_title: Military career
hierarchical_section_title: Bafel Talabani / Military career
caption_attribution_description: English: Peshmerga after defeating Ansar al-Islam
context_page_description: Bafel Talabani, in Kurdish Bafel Tallebanî بافڵ تاڵەبانی is an Iraqi Kurdish politician and an emerging political figure and dealmaker in the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. He is the older son of former PUK leader Jalal Talabani.
context_section_description: Bafel underwent formal military training with the French Foreign Legion and British Special Forces. Following the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, Bafel returned to Kurdistan and took up his first official role as head of the Zanyari, the PUK's intelligence unit. In 2004, he created and commanded the Counter-Terrorism Group (CTG), recruited from within Kurdistan's Peshmerga armed forces, that was focused on delivering front-line military counter-insurgency capability in support of U.S.-led coalition objectives. These were initially focused on combatting the spread of Al-Qaeda in Iraq. That same year, his name was associated with a counterintelligence mission that resulted in the killing of Abdullah Qasre, a member of the Kurdistan Islamic Group's (Komal) political bureau.
  He stepped down from active military service in 2010 to support the political interests of the PUK. Nevertheless, he continued to be engaged with the fight against The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), also known as ISIL or Daesh, through his leadership of the CTG and coordination with the Iraqi armed forces. This effort led to the historic liberation of Mosul and ultimately the defeat of ISIS.
caption: Bafel Talibani, CIA, Special Forces
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon DIGITAL IXUS v2", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0 Macintosh", "Image DateTime": "2003:03:29 11:10:31", "Image ExifOffset": "226", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/320", "EXIF FNumber": "71/10", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2003:03:29 13:10:31", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2003:03:29 13:10:31", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "133/16", "EXIF ApertureValue": "3761/665", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "12742/4289", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "173/32", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "000", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "000", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1600", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1200", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "792233/102", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "240000/31", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}