Iraq to remove 11 from Cabinet

Rights, women’s agencies cut

BAGHDAD -- Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Sunday ordered his Cabinet reduced from 33 members to 22, consolidating the body as part of a government overhaul in response to mass protests against corruption and poor governance.

The decision, announced by his office, will eliminate four ministries, including those of human rights and women's affairs, and consolidate others. The announcement did not mention whether there will be any changes to the remaining ministries.

The move follows a far-reaching plan approved by parliament last week that eliminated the country's three vice presidencies and three deputy prime ministers. The plan also reduced the budget for the personal bodyguards of senior officials and transferred it to the interior and defense ministries.

The plan cut positions held by a number of prominent Iraqi politicians, including Nouri al-Maliki, who was prime minister of Iraq for eight years before he was pushed out last August in response to growing anger over the fall of Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, to the Islamic State extremist group.

Earlier Sunday, Parliament Speaker Salim al-Jabouri said lawmakers will release a report later this week implicating senior officials in the fall of Mosul. He said the report "will document an important and dangerous phase of the history of modern Iraq."

"No one is above the law and the accountability of the people," al-Jabouri said in a statement. "The judiciary will punish perpetrators and delinquents."

Al-Maliki will be implicated in the report, along with more than two dozen other officials, including army chief Babakir Zebari and Atheel al-Nujaifi, the governor of Ninevah province, where Mosul is located, according to a lawmaker who declined to be identified because he is not authorized to brief the media.

The country's supreme judicial council said Sunday that it will hold a special session today to review proposed changes by all its branches across Iraq.

Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has lent his support to demands for change, and parliament unanimously approved the wider package last week in a show of unity for a country riven with sectarian and political rivalries.

Iraq is struggling to roll back the Islamic State, which swept across the border from Syria last summer and seized around a third of the country.

Islamic State militants attacked Iraqi troops on Sunday outside the militant-held city of Fallujah, killing at least 17 soldiers, officials said.

Four suicide attackers drove explosives-laden military vehicles into government barricades outside the city west of Baghdad, setting off heavy clashes, a police officer and an army officer said. The officials said 15 other troops were wounded.

Both officers spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release information.

Earlier on Sunday, al-Abadi said he will launch an investigation of commanders who reportedly withdrew from Ramadi against orders. A statement from his office said he approved "decisions to refer a number of leaders to military tribunal for leaving their positions without a warrant and contrary to instructions, despite several orders not to withdraw."

The ministries of defense and interior will form investigative boards to look into why troops abandoned their weapons and equipment while fleeing, the statement added.

Elsewhere, the internationally recognized government of Libya appealed to Arab countries to carry out airstrikes against the local Islamic State affiliate, which is expanding its hold on the coastal city of Sirte.

The statement late Saturday came after the militants seized control of a new neighborhood in Sirte. The militants shelled the area, killed a senior cleric and hung the bodies of prisoners over bridges.

"The Libyan government, unable to ward off these terrorist groups because of the arms embargo, and out of its historic responsibility toward its people, calls on brotherly Arab countries ... to launch airstrikes against specific targets of [Islamic State] locations in Sirte in coordination with our concerned bodies," the statement said.

The government also condemned the failure of the international community to take action against the group's rise in Libya.

The Arab League said it will hold an emergency meeting on Libya on Tuesday.

In Turkey, the United States announced that it is withdrawing its Patriot missile system deployed near Turkey's border with Syria when its mandate expires in October.

A joint Turkish and U.S. announcement said Sunday that the air-defense units could be returned to Turkey within a week if the need arose. It said U.S. navy ships will be present in the Mediterranean Sea to support Turkey's defense.

Information for this article was contributed by Lolita Baldor, Rami Musa and staff members of The Associated Press.

A Section on 08/17/2015

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