Shafaq News/ Lawmaker Raad al-Dahlaki lambasted Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi's decision to assign a "Shiite" officer to the duties of Diyala's Operations commander.
"The Operations Commander was the only security position the Sunni component has in Diyala, in spite of constituting more than half of the governorate population," al-Dahlaki, a member of Mohammad al-Halboosi's Takaddom bloc, said in a statement to Shafaq News Agency.
Al-Dahlaki said that al-Kadhimi is seeking to marshal Shiite support for a second mandate to himself in the premiership, urging him to reconsider.
"The Sunni villages were exposed to forced evacuation under the mandate of a Sunni commander. How would the situation be if a Shiite commander was in charge?" he continued, "with all our due respect for the Major-General Ali Fadhel Omran and his professionalism, stripping the Sunni component of this entitlement rings bells on the social fabric integrity."
Earlier, Sunni MPs and forces filed objections before the Parliament Speaker and Prime Minister after the latter's decision to assign Major-General Ali Fadhel Omran, a Shiite, to the duties of Diyala Operations Commander in lieu of Major-General Raad al-Jubouri, a Sunni.
A source families with the matter said that the Sunni forces deemed al-Kadhimi's decision "an infringement to the security agreements that stipulate appointing a Shiite to the Police Command and a Sunni to the Operations Command."
