Sunday, August 16, 2015

Iraq’s ex-PM Maliki probed as Abadi presses reforms

An Iraqi parliamentary investigation holds former premier Nouri al-Maliki and 35 others responsible for the fall of second city Mosul to Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants last year, lawmakers said Sunday as Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi continued to press reforms.

The report detailing findings of the investigation has been presented to parliament speaker Salim al-Juburi, who said it will be sent to the prosecutor general for legal action.

“No one is above the law and the questioning of the people, and the judiciary will punish those” responsible, Juburi said in a statement.

ISIS launched a devastating offensive on June 9 last year, overrunning Mosul the next day and then sweeping through large areas north and west of Baghdad.

Multiple Iraqi divisions collapsed during the initial assault in the north, in some cases abandoning weapons and other equipment that then fell into jihadist hands.

Maliki is widely viewed as having exacerbated sectarian tensions between the country’s Shiite majority and the Sunni Arab minority.

The news comes after Abadi approved on Sunday an investigative council's decision to refer military commanders to a court martial for abandoning their positions in the battle against ISIS militants in Ramadi.

The announcement came as Abadi pushes ahead with a sweeping reform campaign aimed at combating corruption and mismanagement in the biggest shake-up in the governing system since the U.S. military occupation.

Ramadi, the capital of western Anbar province, fell to ISIS militants in May, dampening Baghdad's hopes of quickly routing them from the country's north and west following earlier victories in eastern provinces.

The army's collapse in June 2014 in the face of ISIS's takeover of the northern city of Mosul left the Baghdad government dependent on Shi'ite Muslim militias, many funded and assisted by neighboring Iran, to defend the capital and recapture lost ground.

Critics blamed the military's weakness on sectarian splits, corruption and politics.

The fall of Ramadi nearly a year later undermined Abadi's policy of keeping the militias on the sidelines in Anbar, the Sunni heartland, for fear of inflaming sectarian tensions. The militias are now fighting alongside the security forces in many places.

  [alarabiya.net]
(With AFP and Reuters)

16/8/15
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1 comment:

  1. Iraq's Maliki rejects blame for fall of Mosul...

    Iraq's former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Tuesday denounced as worthless a parliamentary report which blamed him and others for the fall of Mosul to Islamic State last year and which called for them to be referred to the judiciary.

    "There is no value to the results that came out of the parliamentary investigation committee", Maliki said on Facebook in his first public comments since the report was released on Sunday and referred to the public prosecutor on Monday.

    Maliki, who has been in Iran since Friday according to his website, said political differences in the panel compromised its objectivity.

    By seeking to provide accountability for the loss of majority Sunni Mosul, the report could help restore confidence in the Shi'ite-led government, especially among Sunni Muslims marginalized by Maliki's divisive politics.

    It coincided with a campaign by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to reduce Iraq's patronage system, another move which could help rebuild a security apparatus riven with graft and mismanagement, but also risks further splits............reuters.com
    18/8/15

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