Iraqi PM Fires Baghdad Security Chief After Deadly Terrorist Attack

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Abadi dismissed the head of the Baghdad Joint Operations Command, Gen. Abdul-Amir Semmari, and a number of other senior security and intelligence forces responsible for protecting the Iraqi capital, Abadi's press service said Friday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — A corresponding statement was published on the prime minister's website.

The dismissals come in the aftermath of Sunday's deadly terrorist attack in the heart of the capital, which left some 290 people dead and 180 injured, and the attack on a Shiite shrine in a city of Balad, located 58 miles north of Baghdad, which occurred earlier in the day and left at least 30 people dead and another 50 wounded.

Daesh has taken the responsibility for Sunday's attack and is believed to be behind the Balad attack also.

Following Sunday's attack, Iraqi Interior Minister Mohammed Salem Ghabban announced his resignation, which Abadi accepted.