Maliki shuffles security cabinet, asks for patience

Iraqi interior minister Jawad al-Bolani is scheduled to testify before parliament today about the security situation in Baghdad. We'll update you on his testimony later today if he says anything interesting.

Prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, meanwhile, is struggling to deal with an outpouring of public anger over Tuesday's bombings. He shuffled around two top security jobs yesterday: Lt. Gen. Abboud Qanbar, the head of Baghdad security, switched roles with Lt. Gen. Ahmed Hashem Awoudeh, the deputy army chief of staff. This was the first time Maliki shuffled his cabinet over security problems (though, it should be noted, nobody actually lost his job).

Maliki asked the people for "patience and steadfastness" in a televised address yesterday.

The Islamic State of Iraq -- the umbrella organization for jihadi groups in Iraq -- claimed responsibility yesterday for the blasts.

"The list of targets will not end, with permission from Allah, until the flag of monotheism is raised once against on the land of Baghdad and the sharia of Allah rules the land and the worshippers," the group said in a statement posted online.

But Iraqis are also laying some blame on neighboring countries: Maj. Gen. Jihad al-Jaabiri, the chief of the army's explosives unit, said yesterday that the explosives used in the blast came from Syria or Saudi Arabia.

Musings on Iraq has a good summary of the political bickering set off by the bombings.

Clearly, as we've noted before, these attacks are politically disastrous for Maliki, who's running for re-election on a platform of increased security. Interesting, then, that he's also reportedly moving to cut off funding (عربي) for members of the Sunni Awakening militias, many of whom have still not been integrated into the Iraqi security forces.

The payments were always supposed to end in 2010 -- but Maliki promised to find government jobs for all of the militiamen, and clearly that hasn't happened yet.

No Comments