Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki fired a senior Sunni official today after he called for an international investigation into the rape allegations leveled by a Sunni Arab woman against three members of the Shia-dominated security forces.
A statement by al-Maliki's office gave no reason in announcing the dismissal of Ahmed Abdul-Ghafour al-Samaraie, head of the Sunni Endowments. Al-Samaraie, whose organization cares for Sunni mosques and shrines in Iraq, had joined other prominent Sunnis in criticising the government's handling of the case.
The 20-year-old woman said she was assaulted on Sunday at a police garrison where she was taken on suspicion of helping Sunni insurgents. Al-Maliki's office today released what it said was a medical report indicating no signs of rape.
Al-Maliki has said the rape allegations were being used by his critics to discredit the security forces and undermine a major, US-led Baghdad crackdown. In exonerating the three officers yesterday, al-Maliki said they should be rewarded as a sign of confidence in the force.
Al-Samaraie said in a statement issued on Monday that the rape allegations offered what he called proof of the failure of the security push in Baghdad to protect the city's residents.
"The Sunni Endowments strongly denounces this horrific crime and lets out a cry for help from the international community and human rights organizations, demanding that they launch an immediate investigation into this crime," said the statement, signed by al-Samaraie.
His dismissal is the latest move in a highly publicised and increasingly bitter tussle over the rape allegations, pitting al-Maliki's Shia-dominated government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki against its Sunni Arab critics. The public quarrel is fueling charges by the Sunnis that the Baghdad crackdown was targeting Sunni neighborhoods and leaving unaffected Shia areas harboring militias blamed for sectarian killings.