Iraq sacks Fallujah police chief after attacks

By Suleiman al-Qubeisi

ANBAR, Iraq (AA) – Iraqi authorities Tuesday dismissed the police chief of the western city of Fallujah one day after the city was shaken by twin suicide bombings that killed nine and injured dozens.

Police commander Eissa al-Sayer was sacked due to his mismanagement of the situation in the city, Salah Kahrout, the head of the Anbar local council, told Anadolu Agency.

He said al-Sayer “was also dismissed because he was illegally elected by the Fallujah local council,” declining to elaborate.

A suicide bomber on Monday drove his explosive-laden vehicle into a security checkpoint, blowing it up at the entrance of Fallujah’s central Nazal district. A second bomber blew himself up shortly afterward at a local police department.

Following the attacks, Ragai Barakat, a member of the Anbar local council’s security committee, said the Sunni city was a victim of conspiracy.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Barakat said Daesh sympathizers have infiltrated Fallujah, where they have prepared car-bombs and planted explosive devices.

"There is a conspiracy being hatched against the city," he alleged, going on to accuse police officers in Fallujah of "failing to shoulder their responsibilities".

"They are the same officers who had earlier abandoned Anbar and Fallujah. Now, they have returned to their posts," he said.

Iraq has suffered a devastating security vacuum since mid-2014, when Daesh captured the northern city of Mosul -- now the target of a wide-ranging army offensive -- and overran vast swathes of territory in the country’s north and west.

Since then, some 58,000 people countrywide have been killed in sporadic acts of violence, according to UN figures.