BAGHDAD: 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 Daesh’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 Daesh 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 Daesh onslaught under the previous government led by Nouri Al Maliki, who was also acting defence minister.
Meanwhile, according to a statement from the Iraqi prime minister’s office on Thursday Iraqi forces have retaken the key town of Qayara, near a major air base south of Mosul, from the Daesh group,
Abadi said the victory marks was an “important step” on the road to Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest which has been in Daesh hands for over two years now. READ MORE OF THIS REPORT
SOURCES: NewsNow/The Gulf Today Online
