BAGHDAD: Iraq’s parliament impeached Defence Minister Khaled Al Obeidi on Thursday over corruption allegations, removing him from office as the army gears up for an assault on Daesh’s de facto capital, Mosul. Parliament voted 142-102 to withdraw confidence from Obeidi, two lawmakers said, after questioning him this month about weapons contracts. Obeidi, a Sunni Muslim ally of Shi’ite Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi, had spearheaded the military campaign to retake territory that the ultra-hardline Sunni Daesh group seized in 2014. Lawmakers have accused the Defence Ministry of wasting billions of dollars and weakening the armed forces to the point where they collapsed in 2014 in the face of the Daesh onslaught under the previous government led by Nouri Al Maliki, who was also acting defence minister. READ MORE OF THIS REPORTSOURCES: NewsNow/The Gulf Today Online(Visited 12 times, 5 visits today)Commentscomments

Source: GNN Liberia August 25, 2016 21:00 UTC