Iraq reassigns Basra commanders

BAGHDAD – The Iraqi government said Wednesday that it was re-assigning the top military and police commanders in the southern city of Basra, three weeks after a crackdown on Shiite militias there that was widely criticized as a poorly planned offensive that failed to disarm the fighters.

Iraqi officials said the military commander, Lt. Gen. Mohan al-Furaiji, and the police chief, Maj. Gen. Jalil Khalaf, were not forced out of their positions. Both commanders were being promoted from their Basra posts, which were always meant to be temporary, the officials said.

But some Basra politicians said the moves were likely punishment for the botched execution of a campaign ordered last month by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki against militias, particularly the Mahdi Army of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The crackdown, which left hundreds dead, did not result in a decisive victory for either side.

“It seems that the government wants to blame its failure on somebody,” said Ali al-Suaidi, the spokesman for the al-Sadr office in Basra. “It is not good for the government to change its commanders in such conditions and circumstances, but this indicates the bad planning of the government.”

The announcement came on the same day that airstrikes by the American-led coalition killed four fighters attacking an Iraqi army patrol with rocket-propelled grenades at 1 a.m., the U.S. military said.

Also on Wednesday, an Associated Press photographer was released after more than two years in U.S. military custody. Bilal Hussein, 36, who was part of an AP team that won the Pulitzer Prize for photography in 2005, was greeted by tearful relatives on his release, the wire service reported.

The U.S. military accused Hussein of being linked to insurgents, but an Iraqi judicial panel this month dismissed all the charges against him. He was set free after the American military said it no longer considers him a threat.

Hussein has denied any improper links to insurgents. “I have spent two years in prison even though I was innocent,” he said after being freed, according to the AP.