of the armored divisions. He also served several times in the Iraqi Ministry of Defense headquarters in Baghdad as the secretary of the Minister of Defense to Adnan Khairallah ( عدنان خير الله ). In 2004, he joined the new Iraqi army, serving first as the commander of the operations center and then commander of military operations in western Iraq. Prior to his appointment as Minister on 8 June 2006, he was the commander of the Iraqi Ground forces (IGF). At the end of 2004, he was mandated to establish the Iraqi Ground Forces Command exactly after the Second Battle of Fallujah; thus, he was the first IGF's commander. Political life After the Gulf War of 1991, he started to criticize Sadam's regime, and opposed the 1990 invasion of Kuwait; as a result, he was demoted and sentenced to seven years in prison with confiscation of his movable and immovable assets. Nevertheless, he was under security surveillance after releasing from the prison and banned from leaving Iraq. Alobaidi was the first Iraqi military commander to lead new Iraqi military forces that was participated alongside American troops to liberate Fallujah city from terrorists and outlaw armed groups in November 2004. As a result, Abd al-Nasir al-Janabi, who was one of Iraqi Council of Representatives members (later in March 2007 the Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council requested that the Council of Representatives lift Abd al-Nasir al-Janabi's parliamentary immunity to face charges of kidnappings and terrorism), accused him of being a "war criminal" in the military campaign of Fallujah during his confirmation hearing in the Council of Representatives. Alobaidi is not affiliated with any political party and was known with his independency and impartiality in dealing with the Iraqi conflicts during his ministry. However, his appointment was strongly backed by the Sunni Arab-led Iraqi Accord Front, which turned against him after the first few months of his ministry as a result of his refusal to be a biased and insisted upon being a minister for all Iraqis. Thus, he faced aggressive interfering from political parties, which wanted to use the Ministry of Defense for political purposes and for their own benefit. His strong refusal to concede to their attempts of interfering in the Ministry and the Iraqi Army put him in confrontation with these political parties, which attempted to impeach him for several times during his ministry. Alobaidi was assigned to the position Minister