BEIRUT: Iraq’s state television says Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi has shaken up the country’s military, relieving 26 army officers from their command, retiring 10 others and appointing 18 new commanders.

Wednesday’s move was Al-Abadi’s first such reorganization of the military since he took office in August, succeeding Nuri Al-Maliki, another Shiite who held office for eight years.

Under the constitution, Al-Abadi, like Al-Maliki before him, holds the post of General Commander of the Armed Forces. But it was Al-Maliki, now a vice president, who had tightly controlled the military, with several elite units taking their orders directly from him. Al-Abadi’s shake-up comes as Iraq’s military and security forces battle militants from the Islamic State group, who control about a third of the country, on several fronts.