The Iraqi government on Wednesday removed its top army and police commanders in Basra, three weeks after the beginning of an offensive in the southern port city widely seen as a military fiasco.

The interior ministry was quoted by Reuters as saying that the army’s Lieutenant General Mohan al-Furaiji and police Major General Abd al-Jalil Khalaf had been recalled to senior staff positions in Baghdad as a “reward” for the success of Operation Sawlat al-Fursan, or Charge of the Knights.