ANKARA – The fugitive Sunni Vice President, Tariq al-Hashimi has advised the Iraqi Government to take firm action against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ( ISIL), which has spread across northern Iraq. He said this on Thursday in Istanbul in response to ongoing uprising in the area. “The main reason behind the uprising is primarily the injustice, marginalisation and oppression of al-Maliki against the Arab Sunnis.
“I blamed Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki for the current violence on Arab Sunnis in Iraq.
“Even the International Community has turned blind eye to their tragedy and has done nothing but watch the ongoing aggression of al-Maliki against al-Anbar province for five months,’’he stressed.
However, al-Hashimi urged for firm actions against ISIL.
The former Iraqi vice president was convicted of murder by Baghdad’s criminal court in 2012.
But Turkey has given asylum to him in spite of the protest from the Iraqi government.
On Wednesday Iraq’s security forces continued fierce clashes with ISIL militant groups, as the troops repelled an attack on a major oil refinery in Salahudin province.
The security deterioration in Iraq started last Tuesday after bloody clashes between the Iraqi security forces and hundreds of Sunni militants.
Report says the latter has already taken control of Iraq’s second largest city Mosul and swathes of other territories after the security forces withdrew from Nineveh and other predominantly Sunni provinces. (Xinhua/NAN)