Iraqi prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, right, speaks at a news conference with Turkey’s Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, left, in Baghdad, Iraq, on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2014.
In this Saturday, Nov. 22, 2014, photo, a woman looks on at the mortars exploding close by in Kobani, Syria.BAGHDAD – Iraq’s prime minister said Monday he retired 24 officials from the Interior Ministry as part of efforts to restructure the country’s security apparatus and remove those who failed to confront the crisis caused by the Islamic State group’s onslaught.
Haider al-Abadi’s announcement came as the Sunni extremist group attacked a police checkpoint near Iraq’s border with Syria, killing at least 15 Iraqi policemen in an assault that underscored the depth of the country’s turmoil.
In Syria, the U.S. Central Command said a U.S. airstrike struck a target associated with the so-called Khorasan group, which Washington says is a special cell within the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front that is plotting attacks against Western interests. CENTCOM said the attack took place near Aleppo, and was among 27 airstrikes since Friday that mainly targeted Islamic State group militants in Kobani and Raqqa in northern Syria.
The strike on the Khorasan group marked the fifth time the U.S. has targeted Nusra, al-Qaida’s Syria branch, as part of its broader campaign against the IS group in Syria and Iraq.
Iraqi Prime Minister al-Abadi’s move to send two dozen Interior Ministry officials into retirement is part of his efforts to “restructure the security forces and make them more effective in the face of terrorism,” according to statements on his official Twitter and Facebook pages.