Iraqi PM fires 4 military commanders as Sunni militants surge

Sunni militants in Iraq continued their offensive on Wednesday, attacking the country's largest oil refinery. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki fired four of his top military officers on Tuesday over their failure to perform "their national duty" and stop the advance by the Islamic extremists, the government said. The rebels have taken over several cities over the last week and vowed to attack Baghdad. Read more about the latest offensive at USA Today.

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.