Iraq: Basra police chief fired (over Sunni mosque attacks)

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Last updated June 18, 2007 6:47 a.m. PT

Iraq: Basra police chief fired

By SINAN SALAHEDDIN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki fired the
Basra police chief Monday over his force's failure to stop
weekend attacks on Sunni mosques in Iraq's second-
largest city, police said.

At least two major mosques were attacked in the Basra
area over the weekend in retaliation for Wednesday's
toppling of minarets at a prized Shiite shrine in Samarra.

A new police chief would replace Maj. Gen. Mohammed
Hamadi al-Mousawi on Monday, a Basra police officer
said on condition of anonymity because he was not
authorized to release the information.

Al-Mousawi was "seen as incompetent, because he
couldn't stop attacks by Shiite extremists against
two Sunni mosques in the wake of the Samara attacks,"
the officer said.

-snip-

Read more: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1107AP_Iraq_Police_Chief.html

[rodeodance]

1. the media has been blaming the attachs on al-quida.

[Kagemusha]

2. The Golden Mosque attacks, yes.

And that's not even a bad bet, Al Qaeda in Iraq or other Sunni forces. This concerns the retaliation attacks.

[maddezmom]

3. Basra's police chief has been transferred to a new post in the Interior Ministry

BASRA, Iraq, June 18 (Reuters) - Basra's police chief has been transferred to a new post in the Interior Ministry, Iraqi officials said on Monday, just days after militants destroyed two Sunni mosques in the southern Shi'ite city.

Major-General Mohammed Hamadi has been locked in a dispute with the governor of Basra province, a member of the small but locally powerful Fadhila party, who has accused him of inefficiency and refusing to obey orders.

The provincial governing council has been in negotiations with the central government in Baghdad for months to resolve the dispute, a source in the council told Reuters, but the bombing of the two Sunni mosques was seen as "the last straw".

The mosques were destroyed at the weekend in apparent retaliation for the bombing of a revered Shi'ite shrine in Samarra north of Baghdad.

more:http://wap.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/COL846609.htm

[maddezmom]

4. Basra's police chief has been transferred to a new post in the Interior Ministry

Basra's police chief has been transferred to a new post in the Interior Ministry, Iraqi officials said on Monday, just days after militants destroyed two Sunni mosques in the southern Shi'ite city.

Major-General Mohammed Hamadi has been locked in a dispute with the governor of Basra province, a member of the small but locally powerful Fadhila party, who has accused him of inefficiency and refusing to obey orders.

The provincial governing council has been in negotiations with the central government in Baghdad for months to resolve the dispute, a source in the council told Reuters, but the bombing of the two Sunni mosques was seen as "the last straw".

The mosques were destroyed at the weekend in apparent retaliation for the bombing of a revered Shi'ite shrine in Samarra north of Baghdad.

Hamadi told Reuters he was being transferred to Baghdad to become a director general in the Interior Ministry. He is to be replaced by Major-General Jalil Khalaf.

http://wap.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/COL846609.htm