Iraqi parliament decided Thursday to sack a Sunni Iraqi Accordance Front legislator after he 'joined the armed resistance and expressed regret to taking part in the political process,' media reports said. After a long debate, the Parliament agreed to dismiss MP Abdul Nasser al-Janabi, and ordered that his party nominate a replacement, independent Voices of Iraq news agency reported. Shiekh Khalid Attiya, the first deputy of the Iraqi parliament, had earlier decided to postpone the decision, saying since al-Janabi had not resigned from the Iraqi Accord Front, the move was 'illegal.' But Shiite Unified Iraqi Coalition members rejected efforts to put off the issue and pressed for action against al-Janabi. The session chairman then decided to sack him and ask IAF to nominate a replacement.
Al-Janabi was a member of the National Dialogue Council, one of three Sunni organizations that make up the IAF. Al-Janabi had said he 'regretted participating in the political process,' and that he had joined 'the Iraqi resistance.'
Separately, the IAF's spokesman Selim al-Jaburi said Thursday that US forces detained the front's MP Naif Jassim while he was at a wake along with other mourners. Al-Jaburi local media reports that Jassim was arrested at an al- Qaeda terrorist network meeting in Sharqat town in Salahaddin province, 175 kilometres north of Baghdad. Al-Jaburi called on the US military to release Jassim immediately.
More details: Baghdad, 5 Oct. (AKI) - Iraqi MP Nayf Jasem Muhammad is among 24 suspected militants arrested during a US raid on an alleged al-Qaeda cell outside Baghdad. According to the Arab newspaper, al-Sharq al-Awsat, the Sunni parliamentarian was in reality a member of al-Qaeda. The US offensive focused on a summit meeting of a local cell of the terrorist organisation on Thursday. Intelligence sources said the meeting was to elect a new leader following the death of Sabah Abdel Rahman al-Ayush who was killed by US forces in a clash a few days ago.
The MP, a member of the main Sunni political party, the National Concord Front, was arrested with 23 other terrorists including one reportedly responsible for financing the local cell which is believed to have raised more than a billion dollars from Jihadi sympathisers. Having MPs linked to al-Qaeda could show how the terrorist network has succeeded in getting around security measures imposed in Baghdad in recent years.
The Sunni Iraqi National Accord Front occupies 44 seats in the 275-seat Iraqi parliament. The front was founded by three Sunni parties: the Iraqi Islamic Party, the General Council for the People of Iraq and the Iraqi National Dialogue Council.