Ninewa govt. “kowtowing” to Baath, AQI, says sahwa leader

NINEWA / IraqiNews.com: The leader of the Mosul’s al-Jazirah sahwa (awakening) tribal forces on Thursday said groups of the dissolved Baath Party and Al-Qaeda in Iraq network are controlling the Ninewa’s local government. “The local government in Ninewa is kowtowing to the domination of groups from the Baath and the AQI. I have mentioned this to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki during a recent meeting with him and I even proposed the formation of more tribal forces to help maintain order and security all over the province,” Sheikh Ali Meleih al-Zawbaie said. Zawbaie was speaking during a conference of clans organized on Thursday (Sept. 24) in the district of Talafar, 60 km northwest of Mosul, attended by a correspondent of Iraqi News. “The majority of the Ninewa Provincial Council members have their hand tied and are not free to act and accordingly something must have be done regarding this,” he added. Sheikh Khalaf Antar, the official spokesman for the Talafar tribal council, accused Iraq’s neighboring countries of “spending billions of dollars in order to render a failure the forthcoming elections”. “I call on the citizens to broaden their participation in the voting process during the parliamentary elections early next year,” he added. Mosul, the capital city of the volatile province of Ninewa, is 405 km north of Baghdad. AmR (S) 1