Analysts blame Maliki for Iraq's troubles

Experts say that the Iraqi prime minister has made major mistakes over security, and that as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces and acting defence and interior minister, he must be held directly responsible. 

"He's appointed every senior officer in the military currently serving, so issues like illegal arrests, torture, extraction of bribes to free detainees, etc. I'd lay at Maliki's feet," Kirk Sowell, a political risk analyst and publisher of the Inside Iraqi Politics newsletter told AFP. 

"He is clearly incapable of running the mil itary in a competent manner," Sowell added. 

Anthony Cordesman of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, agreed.

Maliki "has spent the last few years... both corrupting the Iraqi security forces and putting people in (its) command chain (who) are loyal to him," Cordesman said.

And "he has used it systematically to repress the legitimate Sunni opposition."