The interior minister Mohammed Ghabban tendered his resignation over Sunday’s bombing, but the removal of the Baghdad operations commander Lt Gen Abdulamir Al Shimmari and other officials are the first sackings since the attack.
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Anger against the government is running high after the auto bombing last Sunday that killed at least 292 people.
In Thursday evening’s attack, militants targeted the Sayyid Mohammed shrine in Balad, 70 kilometres (45 miles) north of Baghdad, Joint Operations Command spokesman Yahya Rasool told AFP.
Across the Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan, Muslims began celebrating the Eid al-Fitr holiday that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
The massive truck bombing by the Islamic State group in Baghdad was the deadliest attack in Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion and has stoked public unrest and spurred Iraqi officials to announce a number of new security measures. Hours earlier the prime minister fired Baghdad’s security chief over the attacks that hit in or near the capital during the past week.
In a statement issued on his web site, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi described the air base in the town of Qayara as an “important base to liberate Mosul”, and called on Mosul residents “to get ready for the liberation of their areas”.
A third bomber was killed before he detonated his explosives, police officials said.
U.S. President Barack Obama said last month that his administration was “not ruling out the possibility” of sending hundreds of additional troops to Iraq later this year to help train, advise and assist forces for a potential assault on Mosul, according to a senior U.S. official.
IS claimed responsibility for the shrine attack in a post on the internet.
Small-scale bombings occur on a near-daily basis in Baghdad.
The initial blast killed a limited number of people, but flames spread and trapped people inside shopping centres that lacked emergency exits, Maj Gen Rahi said.
An official in Abadi’s office told AFP on Wednesday that the premier had accepted the minister’s resignation, though there has been no official statement from him on the matter.
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It also comes just weeks after Iraq declared it had regained full control of Falluja, ISIS’ main stronghold in the country, as the militant group loses more ground. In late March, Iraqi forces launched an operation aimed at dislodging IS from areas to the south and southeast of Mosul and gradually cutting off the city’s supply lines.
