Iraq's chief of defence staff removed from post

Babakir Zebari is to leave his post as Iraq's army chief of staff, it emerged on Monday.

The general is the latest in a string of high-ranking military and police officials to leave their positions, reportedly under the direct orders of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, since the Islamic State group overran large parts of the country last year.

Abadi "retired" Zebari, the most senior officer removed since the Islamic State group overran swathes of the country a year ago, the prime minister's spokesman Saad al-Hadithi said.

If I were asked about the withdrawal, I would say to politicians: the US army must stay until the Iraqi army is fully ready in 2020 - Babakir Zebari

Despite the PM's statement, it was Zebari himself who requested the retirement, according to Arabic media sources.

The sources said according to Zebari, he had first requested retirement in October 2014, as he felt the minister of defence was taking decisions without consulting him, but withdrew his request when pressured to do so.

He said this time the prime minister of Kurdistan, Masoud Barzani, agreed to his request because he insisted he simply could not stay in his position.

Zebari, a Kurd close to the Kurdistan Democratic Party and its leader, current president of the Kurdistan Regional Government Masoud Barzani, has been in his post since 2003.

In the past Zebari raised concerns about the capabilities of the Iraqi army.

He repeatedly said before the withdrawal of US forces in 2011 that it would be better if American forces stayed, as it would take years for the Iraqi army to be fully ready.

"If I were asked about the withdrawal, I would say to politicians: the US army must stay until the Iraqi army is fully ready in 2020," Zebari told AFP in 2010.

Multiple Iraqi army divisions collapsed during the initial IS offensive last year, with soldiers abandoning weapons, vehicles and uniforms in their haste to flee.

While Zebari was chief of staff, effective military responsibility was devolved elsewhere after 2011, with former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a Shia, centralising control of the armed forces in his office and bypassing the defence ministry.

Three and a half years after US forces left, there are now thousands of US soldiers back in Iraq advising and training Baghdad's forces, and the US is leading a campaign of air strikes targeting IS in Iraq and Syria.