By Alissa J. Rubin and Rod Nordland
NEW YORK TIMES JUNE 19, 2014
BAGHDAD — Alarmed over the Sunni insurgent mayhem (click here) convulsing Iraq, the country’s political leaders are actively jockeying to replace Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, U.S. and Iraqi officials said Thursday.
The political leaders have been encouraged by what they see as newfound U.S. support for replacing al-Maliki with someone more acceptable to Iraq’s Sunnis and Kurds, as well as to the Shiite majority, the officials said....
I'll be surprised if the Shia vote for anyone other than another Shi'ite.
SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region – Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki (click here) ordered the release of 2,000 Shiite prisoners in the north to take up arms against Sunni insurgents advancing on Baghdad, as his embattled government formally asked the US for air strikes to stop the rebels.
"The order reached our prison on Thursday and then the Shiite prisoners, numbering 2,000, were separated,” said an official at the Chamchamal prison in the autonomous Kurdistan Region, speaking to Rudaw on condition of anonymity.
The jail is located in the town of Chamchamal, west of Sulaimani province, and houses some of the most dangerous prisoners across Iraq. Thousands of inmates were recently transferred there from the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad and from Kirkuk.
“The (Shiite) prisoners had been sentenced to death or life imprisonment, and it was decided to fly them back to Baghdad," said the source.....
