MIDEAST-CRISIS/IRAQ RAMADI Iraqi PM orders commanders to face trial over Ramadi withdrawal

Record ID: 143780

  • Title: MIDEAST-CRISIS/IRAQ RAMADI Iraqi PM orders commanders to face trial over Ramadi withdrawal
  • Date: 16th August 2015
  • Summary: RAMADI, IRAQ (FILE, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF SMOKE RISING OVER CITY VARIOUS OF SMOKE RISING WITH SOUND OF GUNFIRE IN BACKGROUND VARIOUS OF RESIDENTS FLEEING HOMES WITH SOUND OF GUNFIRE EMPTY STREET WITH SOUND OF EXPLOSIONS VARIOUS OF VEHICLES BURNING IRAQI ARMY TANK NEXT TO DITCH FILLED WITH EMPTY CASINGS IRAQI FORCES OUTSIDE DAMAGED POLICE CENTRE SECURITY FORCES CLIMBIN
  • Embargoed: 31st August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA128AXY3ZODHECRRPPEHZZV2T8
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: CONTAINS GRAPHIC MATERIAL
    Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi directed military commanders on Sunday (August 16) to face a court martial for abandoning their positions in Ramadi, as he pushed ahead with a campaign aimed at combating corruption and mismanagement.
    Underlining the risks of the ambitious reform agenda, however, the head of parliament's integrity panel, which refers corruption cases to the courts, said his convoy had been targeted west of Baghdad on Saturday (August 15) evening.
    Abadi is seeking to transform a system he says has encouraged graft and incompetence, depriving Iraqis of basic services while undermining government forces in the battle against Islamic State militants.
    Critics say sectarian splits and corruption have also weakened the military, allowing the insurgents to control large swathes of territory in the country's north and west over the past year.
    Ramadi, the capital of western Anbar province, fell to the group in May, dampening Baghdad's hopes of quickly routing them following earlier victories in eastern provinces.
    The army's collapse a year earlier in the face of Islamic State's takeover of the northern city of Mosul left the Baghdad government dependent on Shi'ite Muslim militias, many funded and assisted by neighbouring Iran, to defend the capital and recapture lost ground.
    In a sign of the opposition to Abadi's plans, parliament integrity chief Talal al-Zobaie said his motorcade was attacked on Saturday evening near Abu Ghraib, 24 km (15 miles) west of Baghdad.
    Zobaie said a bomb hit a vehicle carrying his bodyguards.
    Gunmen then fired on the convoy, killing a bodyguard and wounding three others.
    A separate bomb attack on Sunday killed at least four people and wounded 14 others near a crowded market in the mainly Shi'ite district of Jisr Diyala, southeast of Baghdad.
    There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Islamic State regularly targets areas of the capital populated by Shi'ites, whom it considers heretics.
    In a statement circulated online by supporters, the group claimed an attack on Saturday evening in the Shi'ite district of Habibiya that killed at least 15 people.
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