Iraq: Sacking of Security Leaders Raises Suspicions of ‘Political Purge’

 Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Al-Sudani and Fatah Alliance leader Hadi Al-Amiri (INA)
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Al-Sudani and Fatah Alliance leader Hadi Al-Amiri (INA)
TT
20

Iraq: Sacking of Security Leaders Raises Suspicions of ‘Political Purge’

 Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Al-Sudani and Fatah Alliance leader Hadi Al-Amiri (INA)
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Al-Sudani and Fatah Alliance leader Hadi Al-Amiri (INA)

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Al-Sudani, in record timing, has imposed unprecedented administrative changes by sacking hundreds of security officials and replacing them with individuals loyal to the Coordination Framework.

The Coordination Framework is an umbrella bloc of Iraqi Shiite parties united mostly by their opposition to the Sadrist movement.

Ahmed Taha Hashim, popularly known as Abu Ragheef, who occupied the post of the head of the Iraqi Ministry of Interior's intelligence wing, was among those fired.

Hashim was dismissed alongside the commander of the border guards and the police and anti-narcotics agency undersecretaries. Moreover, dozens of high-ranking federal police officers were fired.

According to local media, the total changes that took place in the first month of Al-Sudani’s government included more than 900 positions. These positions mainly belonged to the interior ministry and the national security and intelligence agencies.

Al-Sudani pledged, since he took office early November, that “his government’s decisions would be under the umbrella of the law and the constitution.” But recent changes, because they were many at once, stirred doubt among Iraqis that they could be politically motivated.

Clearly, recently dismissed security officials are affiliated with the former prime minister, Mustafa Al-Kadhimi.

While reliable sources expect “memos to be issued against a number of those sacked,” they talked about a “deliberate purge within the government in favor of influential partisan bodies within the Coordination Framework.”

It is known that Coordination Framework representatives often accuse prominent officials that worked under Al-Kadhimi’s administration of misconduct. They, however, only do so in the media, without referring to investigative bodies.

The fact is that the personalities appointed by Al-Sudani’s government, as replacements for those dismissed, were active in the governments of Nuri Al-Maliki, Haider Al-Abadi and Adel Abdul-Mahdi.

They had lost their positions under Al-Kadhimi.



Israeli Strikes Kill 12 in Lebanon, including 5 Hezbollah Fighters

Women walk near destroyed buildings, with one holding the flag of Hezbollah, in the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Kila, after an Israeli military spokesperson said that Israel would keep troops in several posts in southern Lebanon past the deadline for them to withdraw, February 18, 2025 - Reuters reported.
Women walk near destroyed buildings, with one holding the flag of Hezbollah, in the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Kila, after an Israeli military spokesperson said that Israel would keep troops in several posts in southern Lebanon past the deadline for them to withdraw, February 18, 2025 - Reuters reported.
TT
20

Israeli Strikes Kill 12 in Lebanon, including 5 Hezbollah Fighters

Women walk near destroyed buildings, with one holding the flag of Hezbollah, in the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Kila, after an Israeli military spokesperson said that Israel would keep troops in several posts in southern Lebanon past the deadline for them to withdraw, February 18, 2025 - Reuters reported.
Women walk near destroyed buildings, with one holding the flag of Hezbollah, in the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Kila, after an Israeli military spokesperson said that Israel would keep troops in several posts in southern Lebanon past the deadline for them to withdraw, February 18, 2025 - Reuters reported.

Heavy Israeli airstrikes killed 12 people, including five Hezbollah fighters, in eastern Lebanon on Tuesday, a security source in Lebanon said, in what Israel said was a warning to the Iran-backed group against trying to re-establish itself.

The Israeli military said the airstrikes targeted training camps used by elite Hezbollah fighters and warehouses it used to store weapons in the Bekaa Valley region of eastern Lebanon.

The airstrikes were the deadliest on the area since a US-brokered ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel last November. Bachir Khodr, governor of the Bekaa region, said seven of the dead were Syrian nationals.

Israel dealt Hezbollah heavy blows in last year's conflict, killing its leader Hassan Nasrallah along with other commanders and destroying much of its arsenal.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Tuesday's strikes sent a "clear message" to Hezbollah, accusing it of planning to rebuild the capability to raid Israel through the elite Radwan force, Reuters reported.

Israel "will respond with maximum force to any attempt at rebuilding", he said. He added that strikes were also a message to the Lebanese government, saying it was responsible for upholding the ceasefire agreement.

There was no immediate public response from Hezbollah or from the Lebanese government to the latest Israeli strikes.

The United States has submitted a proposal to the Lebanese government aimed at securing Hezbollah's disarmament within four months in exchange for Israel halting airstrikes and withdrawing troops from positions they still hold in south Lebanon.

Under the terms of the ceasefire brokered by the US and France, Lebanon's armed forces were to confiscate "all unauthorized arms", beginning in the area south of the Litani River - the zone closest to Israel.