[Iran Press TV Latest] Iraq sacks National Intelligence Service Director Mohammed al-Shahwani over the recent bomb attacks on holy Shia shrines in Baghdad. Three days after the bomb attacks killed over 60 people and injured dozens more in Baghdad, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki disclosed accurate intelligence reports, indicating that "foreign elements plan the recent attacks targeting Shia community and especially Iranian pilgrims."
On Monday, Al-Maliki dismissed al-Shahwani as director of the Iraqi National Intelligence Service (INIS), who has been an influential US ally in the Iraqi government, said a report by Iraq's Buratha news.
According to the report al-Shahwani's career was on the edge for a long time, but his dismissal had been frequently vetoed either by the US officials or by the hardliner Salafists.
Al-Shahwani had recruited most of his staff from the former National Intelligence Service employees operating under the former Baathist regime.
He employed those who had played an active role in suppressing entities, including Shia communities, who opposed the former Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, the reported added.
Political analysts describe al-Shahwani and his 150-member pro-US team which have been working both in Baath intelligence service and Nouri al-Maliki's government, as "a parallel power to the current Iraqi administration."
The US gave concessions to bring back its allies to the current intelligence body and Baghdad's efforts to take control of the dossier related to intelligence ministry from Washington have long been but a failure, the report said.
In 2005, the US appointed al-Shahwani to the Iraqi National Intelligence Service chief, at the time of the interim Prime Minister, Ayad Allawi.
However, after it was revealed that the intelligence chief had links to the headline Salafists, al-Maliki told the US negotiators on the US-Iraq Interim Security Pact that al-Shahawani should resign if the pact was to be signed.
At the same time that the Iraqi government launched a campaign to expel the elements supported by the US and its Arab allies from the countries' intelligence body, Premier al-Maliki and Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari spoke out of the foreign elements' involvement in the recent wave of violence.
In an April joint press conference with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said that terrorists penetrate into Iraq from neighboring Arab countries like Tunisia and Morocco who have strong ties with the US.