Iraq Parliament Impeaches Defense Minister as Mosul battle looms

Iraq Parliament Impeaches Defense Minister

Local Editor

Iraqi lawmakers on Thursday voted to impeach Defense Minister Khaled al-Obeidi over corruption allegations, MPs said.

Two members of parliament told AFP that lawmakers voted to withdraw their confidence from Obeidi by 142 votes to 102 in a secret ballot, while 18 abstained.

Source: AFP	25-08-2016 – 17:53 Last updated 25-08-2016 – 17:53

Iraqi defense minister sacked as Mosul battle looms

By Leith Fadel –25/08/2016

Iraqi Defence Minister Khaled al-Obeidi speaks to the media at an Iraqi army base in Camp Taji in Baghdad, February 21, 2016. REUTERS/Ahmed Saad

(Reuters) 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 Islamic State’s de facto capital, Mosul.

Parliament voted 142-102 to withdraw confidence from Obeidi, two lawmakers said, after questioning him this month about weapons contracts. He denies the corruption allegations.

Obeidi, a Sunni Muslim ally of Shi’ite Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, had spearheaded the military campaign to retake territory that the ultra-hardline Sunni Islamic State group seized in 2014.

Lawmakers have accused the Defence Ministry of wasting billions of dollars and weakening the armed forces to the point where they collapsed in 2014 in the face of the Islamic State onslaught under the previous government led by Nuri al-Maliki, who was also acting defense minister.

Iraq’s military is slowly being rebuilt with the support of a U.S.-led coalition. The army and Shi’ite militias have retaken many areas back from Islamic State, but the biggest test will be the battle for Mosul.

Thirteen years after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein and sparked sectarian violence, major OPEC oil producer Iraq ranks 161st out of 168 nations in Transparency International’s corruption index.

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