ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - In response to a recent accusation by Iraq's finance minister of excessive spending on Shiite militias, vice president Nouri al-Maliki called the forces the protectors of the current and previous government.
"Without the $1 billion we spent on the volunteer army there wouldn't be the previous or current government," said Maliki in Dhiqar province on the weekend.
Earlier this month, Finance Minister Hoshyar Zebari complained of excessive spending on Shiite militias by the government.
Maliki said in his speech that the fall of Mosul was not the fault of the military but that, "It took place with a pre-planned political agreement by a people who thought ISIS shouldn't be resisted because it was fighting the Shiites."
Maliki did not mention any names of who he thought was behind the fall of Mosul, but he said that army personnel in that area had also put down their guns and refused to put up a fight.
Zebari said that "part of Iraq's financial problems are rooted in the big spending on the Shiite militias and other military contracts."
"The government spends funds on the military without any plans, apart from the fact that in the past four months more than $1 billion has been spent on Shiite groups," he said.
Asaib Ahl al-haq, one of Iraq's powerful Shiite groups, responded to Zebari, saying that the finance minister should "instead talk about the Peshmerga forces who violated Iraq's constitution and went to fight in Kobane."
The group's leaders said that the finance minister’s comments were an insult to the volunteer fighters and Iraq.
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