Iraqi PM: govt. to cooperate with Kurds to liberate Nineveh from ISApril 6, 2015 - 16:56 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said the Baghdad government would work with Kurdish authorities to liberate the northern province of Nineveh from Islamic State militants, according to Reuters. During his first visit to the Kurdistan region since becoming Prime Minister last year, Abadi said Baghdad and Erbil faced a common enemy and would improve ties to help confront the threat. "Our visit to Erbil today is to coordinate and cooperate on a joint plan to liberate the people of Nineveh," Abadi said at a joint news conference with Kurdish President Massoud Barzani on Monday. Abadi declined to lay out a timetable for the plan to retake Nineveh, of which Mosul is capital, in order not to lose the "element of surprise". The trip comes less than a week after Islamic State militants were driven out of the city of Tikrit by Iraqi forces including Shi'ite militia, backed by coalition air strikes. Asked about reported abuses by the Shi'ite militia, who are grouped together as Popular Mobilisation Committees or Hashid Shaabi, Abadi said it was not fair to level the accusation at the entire force. “There’s a small group that attempts to attach itself to the Hahsid Shaabi and attack civilians and their belongings and offend the Hahsid Shaabi," Abadi said. "Our measures are to arrest these people and present them to court and we have indeed arrested.” Photo: AFP Top stories Authorities said a total of 192 Azerbaijani troops were killed and 511 were wounded during Azerbaijan’s offensive. In 2023, the Azerbaijani government will increase the country’s defense budget by more than 1.1 billion manats ($650 million). The bill, published on Monday, is designed to "eliminate the shortcomings of an unreasonably broad interpretation of the key concept of "compatriot". The earthquake caused a temporary blackout, damaged many buildings and closed a number of rural roads. Partner news | Russia warns Armenia against “falling into West’s trap” Zakharova maintained, however, that anything that will benefit the people of Armenia can only be welcomed. CSTO: Armenia has not participated in secretariat’s work recently Recently Armenia has not participated in the work of the secretariat of the CSTO, Imangali Tasmagambetov said. Meeting with U.S., EU not against third parties, says Armenia The meeting scheduled for April 5 is dedicated to strengthening of the Armenia-EU-US cooperation, Yerevan added. Ucom launches network modernization efforts in few regions of Armenia In particular, on March 28, the legacy Mobile Switching Subsystem will be replaced with a new one. |