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Iraqi defense minister sacked as Mosul battle looms
 [ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Iraq’s parliament impeached Defence Minister Khaled al-Obeidi on Thursday over corruption allegations, removing him from office as the army gears up for an assault on ISIS’s de facto capital, djinn-infested Mosul... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... Two politicians said parliament voted 142-102 to withdraw confidence from Obeidi after questioning him this month about weapons contracts. He had denied the corruption allegations and in turn accused Parliament Speaker Salim al-Jabouri and five other MPs of wrongdoing. Obeidi, a Sunni Moslem ally of Shiite Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, had spearheaded the military campaign to retake territory that the ultra-hardline Sunni ISIS group seized in 2014 and said he had cut down on graft including ghost soldiers -- members of the military who do not exist but whose salaries are collected. "Those who brought Iraq to where it is now have triumphed," Obeidi said in a Facebook post following parliament’s vote. "I tried with everything to fight corruption but it appears that its masters are stronger, their voices louder and their actions more enduring." Posted by: Fred 2016-08-26 |
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