Maliki Moves Against Foes as Crisis Deepens

Just hours after the last US troops left Iraq, the country's political crisis has deepened seriously, with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki moving against several major rivals, reports the Wall Street Journal. Yesterday Maliki tried to get parliament to take up a non-confidence motion against Vice Premier Saleh al-Mutlaq, a major Sunni ally of Ayad Allawi, because Mutlaq called Maliki a "dictator" in an interview with CNN on Tuesday. "It's not in the country's interest for him [Maliki] to escalate because the country could plunge into the abyss at any moment," said Mutlaq in response.

Maliki also ordered Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi off of a plane bound for Kurdistan yesterday because several members of the vice president's security detail have been implicated in a series of assassinations, according to the Miami Herald. Hashemi was threatened with being charged as an accomplice, though as a vice president he would have immunity. "America brought us this government, so they should have taken it with them," said one man in Baghdad. (More Iraq stories.)