BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's military spokesman says the prime minister has removed the chief of the army's ground forces and the head of the federal police from their posts.
Lt. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi says Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki signed the papers Saturday to retire Lt. Gen. Ali Ghaidan, commander of the army's ground forces, and Lt. Gen. Mohsen al-Kaabi, the federal police chief.
Al-Moussawi says both men leave their jobs with their pensions. No replacements have been named.
The dismissals are part of al-Maliki's shakeup of the security forces after their near collapse in the face of a sweeping militant offensive led by the Islamic State extremist group.
Last month, al-Maliki retired three generals who had been deployed in the north and ordered legal proceedings against them.