Qadir Obeidi

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Lt. Gen. Abdul Qadir Mohammed Jassim Obeidi al-Mifarji' (Arabic: عبدالقادر محمد جاسم عبيدي المفارجي‎) is the Defence Minister of Iraq in the Council of Ministers of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

He was born in Ramadi and is a Sunni Arab former general in the army of Saddam Hussein. He told the Council of Representatives that he had been demoted after opposing the 1990 invasion of Kuwait and was sentenced to seven years jail in 1994. In 2003, he joined the new Iraqi army, serving first as the commander of the operations room and then commander of military operations in western Iraq. Prior to his appointment as Minister on 8 June 2006, he was commander of the infantry commando units.

During his confirmation hearing in the Council of Representatives one Assembly member accused him of being a "war criminal in a military campaign against the city of Fallujah".

He is not affiliated to any political party but his appointment was strongly backed by the Sunni Arab-led Iraqi Accord Front.

In March 2007 he said that "corruption and militias inhabit the halls" of the Defense Ministry, "fictitious employees" were "rampant" and he is pressured to restructure his ministry along the lines of power-sharing deals.