Zanyari Agency
Zanyari Agency is one of two intelligence agencies in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and operates within the framework of the Kurdistan Region Security Council (KRSC). Zanyari has its headquarters in Qalachwalan in the city of Slemani and works very closely with the Kurdish internal security service Asayish as well as foreign partners to counter threats to the Kurdistan Region and Iraq.
The establishment of Zanyari Agency dates back to the Kurdish struggle against the Iraqi Baath regime led by Saddam Hussein in the 1970s. Following the 1990 Gulf War and the 1991 Kurdish Uprising, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) founded in 1975 by Jalal Talabani, organized its military and civilian intelligence networks and capabilities into one entity, Malbandi Drasati Gshti or The Directorate for General Investigation. Zanyari operated under this name until 2003, working to infiltrate Baath networks and identify Kurds working with them against the Kurdish resistance movement and the Peshmerga. When the 2003 Iraq war toppled the Baath regime from power, the agency began its internal reforms and reorganized under its current name, Zanyari Agency.
Prior to the Iraq war in 2003, the Kurdistan Region was split into two administrations of which the PUK controlled the provinces of Slemani and Halabja and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) were the leading authority in Hawler and Dohuk. However, in 2006, the two administrations united and Zanyari was integrated into the state apparatus of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). The Agency has since become a crucial and integral part of the new Iraqi intelligence system countering numerous insurgent threats to the Kurdistan Region, Iraq and the wider region.
In 2011, Zanyari and its counterpart Parastin were integrated into the Kurdistan Region Security Council as stipulated in Law No. 4 of 2011, Law of the Kurdistan Region Security Council.
In 2013 Lahur Talabany was appointed as the new Director of Zanyari and ushered in a program of significant reform aiming to restructure and professionalize the agency. Talabany is also a co-founder of the Kurdish Special Forces, Counter Terrorism Group (CTG). This entity was incorporated into Zanyari’s new structure upon Talabany’s appointment.