ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The political bloc of Iraq’s parliamentary speaker Osama Nujeifi has accused the government of orchestrating a military campaign in the Sunni provinces, following months of widespread protests against the Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
The Sunni-dominated Al-Mutahudin bloc that is headed by Nujeifi, said in a statement that, “The Iraqi government under Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has launched a military operation in Baghdad, Salahaddin and Diyala provinces in order to avenge the residents of those areas.”
It added that the crackdown was tantamount to an “uncivilized and sectarian operation that could be called massacre,” and its aim was “to punish the people of those areas on a sectarian basis.”
Since Maliki’s second term as prime minister in 2010, Iraq’s Sunni leaders have been critical of him and his government, accusing the premier of sectarianism and heavy-handedness in the country’s central Sunni provinces.
An April military crackdown on a peaceful protest in Hawija, in which more than 60 people were killed, led to several weeks of bloody confrontation between the Iraqi army and the Sunni residents of Salahaddin, Mosul and Anbar.
Since early August, units from the Iraqi army backed by jet fighters and helicopter gunships have pursued operations in the suburbs of Baghdad and parts of Salahaddin in what they call “an attempt to root out fighters of the al-Qaeda organization.”
The operation came after more than 500 prisoners escaped prison, aided by insurgents who attacked the compound outside Baghdad.
On the other hand, Iraqi security officials are in hot water over their failure to establish security in the country, where in July alone more than 800 people were killed in car bombs.
Following a deadly car bomb last week which claimed more than 200 dead and injured, the head of the Iraqi National Congress (INC), Ahmad Chalabi, blamed Maliki for the deteriorating security and asked him to step down.
“If you value the blood of the Iraqi people, step down and don’t be a slave to your position,” Shafaq News quoted Chalabi as saying.
