Iraqi PM Shakes Up Military
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Iraq's state television said Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has shaken up the country's military, relieving 26 army officers from their command, retiring 10 others and appointing 18 new commanders.
No other details were immediately available, but Wednesday's move was al-Abadi's first such reorganization of the military since he took office in August, succeeding Nouri al-Maliki, another Shiite who held office for eight years, AP reported.
Under the constitution, al-Abadi, like al-Maliki before him, holds the post of General Commander of the Armed Forces. But it was al-Maliki, now a vice president, who had tightly controlled the military, with several elite units taking their orders directly from him.
Al-Abadi's shake up comes as Iraq's military and security forces battle militants from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group, who control about a third of the country, on several fronts.
