Iraqi PM accepts resignation of 5 cabinet members

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Tuesday accepted the resignations of five cabinet ministers, as part of his anti-corruption reform that includes substantial cabinet reshuffle.

In a brief statement issued by his office, Abadi accepted the resignations of the ministers of oil, transportation, reconstruction and housing, water resources, industry and interior.

The Interior Minister Mohammed al-Ghabban submitted resignation to Abadi on July 5, two days after a massive bombing in Karrada area in central Baghdad that killed some 165 people and wounded 225 others, but his resignation was officially accepted on Tuesday's decision.

On Friday, tens of thousands of Iraqi people rallied in Tahrir Square in downtown Baghdad in response to the call by the populist Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr to protest against corruption and sectarianism in Iraq.

Sadr appeared in the rally and shared the demonstrators their chants, before one of his aides read his speech.

Sadr demanded to sack all corrupt people in the government institutions, including high-ranking officials, warning that if the government failed to meet this demand, demonstrators will go further and demand resignation from the president, the prime minister and the parliament speaker, the three top leaders in the country.

Abadi made a substantial shakeup in his cabinet late March, when he presented a list of 14 candidates to the parliament for a new cabinet lineup including independent technocrats, but his move faced objections from other parties in the parliament.

Some political blocs and politicians apparently disapprove such a reform because they see it a way to marginalize their factions in a government originally built on power-sharing agreements.

A series of failed reform measures have paralyzed Iraq's parliament and its government as the country struggles to fight the Islamic State militant group, which seizes swathes of territories in northern and western Iraq. The country is also being trapped in an economic crisis, in part due to a plunge in global oil prices. Endit