Lahur Talabany is a key figure in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and the leading politician of The People’s Front political party. He is also the former Co-President of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the former Director of Zanyari Agency, a leading intelligence services in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region. 

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Born in 1975, Talabany spent his early years in the mountains with his family who were fighting the Baathist regime of Saddam Hussein and left for the United Kingdom in 1990. From 1999 till 2001 Talabany served as the Special Representative of the PUK to Ankara, Turkey. In 2001 he returned to the Kurdistan Region and in 2002 co-founded the Counter Terrorism Group (CTG) with the support of the United States Military 10th Special Forces Group and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). In 2003 Talabany participated in the decisive Operation Viking Hammer to oust the Ansar Al-Islam terrorist organization from the eastern mountain range of the Kurdistan Region. Viking Hammer was a joint operation between 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) and Peshmerga fighters of the PUK. The operation concluded with the successful and permanent ouster of Ansar Al-Islam from the Kurdistan Region. 

 

From 2003 to 2013 Talabany led CTG, working closely with U.S. Delta Force and the CIA, playing a significant role in combating terrorist groups not just in the Kurdistan Region, but also across Iraq, scoring many battlefield successes. In 2013 Talabany was appointed the Director of Zanyari Agency and continued in his capacity as Director of CTG. Talabany played a key role in unifying the Kurdish intelligence apparatus as well as modernizing Zanyari to better combat evolving national and regional security threats. Talabany’s Zanyari Agency and CTG forces played a instrumental role in the fight against Islamic State working closely with Iraqi forces and the coalition in both Iraq and Syria. Talabany initiated and created the relationship between the US and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Rojava and the collaborative effort between the CTG, coalition forces and the SDF saw ISIS endure their first significant defeat in Kobani. 

 

In February of 2020, Talabany was elected to serve as the Co-President of the PUK and strategized a reform program to modernize the party’s mandate but in the beginning of 2024 created his own political party under the name The People’s Front. Talabany is fluent in Kurdish, English, Turkish, Arabic and Persian and is a well-respected and distinguished figure in the Iraqi political, military and intelligence communities. A key ally of the United States and the West, Talabany will continue to be an influential and crucial figure in the foreseeable future, having established good relations not only with Iraqi Kurdish and Arab leaders, but also key Western and Middle Eastern allies.