Iraq's PM blames military flee on conspiracy

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki woved to cleanse the country of Islamic militants and regain control over the regions they had taken during last days' fights.

The Prime Minister said that Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, had fallen into the hands of the militants due to a conspiracy.

The town had been captured rather swiftly after the military and the police fled their outposts, leaving the city with little to no protection at all.

Although the US and even other Iraqi leaders have harshly criticized al-Maliki for his failure to stop the attack or, at least, prevent it from spreading to other cities, the Prime Minister claims that troops had evacuated the city because of a conspiracy.

'I wonder what has really happened and how it happened? How did some units collapse? I know the reasons, but today we are not here to blame those who took part or how the operation was carried out. Where did come from? Who spread the rumours? Who ordered the soldiers to withdraw in order to cause confusion among the military units?' he said during Wednesday's weekly televised address.

Atheel al-Nujaifi, governor of a Mosul provence, disagrees with the PM, stating that, should the government and especialy the Prime Minister had acted sooner, control over Mosul would have been regained.

'Unfortunately Baghdad, and especially (Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri) al-Maliki, didn’t listen to us. He was listening to his army general, more than the government of Mosul,' said al-Nujaifi.

Meanwhile, al-Maliki continues to put pressure on the parliament to declare a state of emergency so that civilians might be called to arms. A decision is due Thursday.