Sunni Leaders Angry Over Arrest Warrant

An armed man checks cars coming to Buhriz, 60 kilometers (35 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, June 25, 2007, after locals were tipped off of a possible al-Qaida attack on their village. (AP Photo) (AP)

The Iraqi Accordance Front, the biggest Sunni bloc in the legislature, said the warrant was based on statements made under torture.

"We are fed up and there is no room for patience and we wish that this mistake would be fixed and not repeated," the Front said. The statement added that al-Maliki had promised the minister would not be arrested, although officials in the prime minister's office denied the claim.

The Sunni community, which was dominant under Saddam Hussein, has been struggling for a greater role in government. At the same time, hardline Sunni insurgent groups have been targeting Sunnis who want to join the political process.

A Sunni sheik, Hamid Abdul Farhan al-Shujairi, was gunned down Tuesday in a mainly Sunni area of Baghdad, police said. A member of his tribe, Akram al-Shujairi, said the sheik had attended a conference several weeks ago on supporting the government and fighting al-Qaida.

The attack occurred one day after a suicide bomber slipped into the busy Mansour Hotel in Baghdad and blew himself up, killing as many as six tribal leaders who oppose al-Qaida.

U.S. Marine Maj. Jeff Pool, a military spokesman in western Iraq, said Sunni sheiks from Anbar province were meeting with Shiite sheiks at the Mansour to talk about reconciliation.

An al-Qaida front group, the Islamic State of Iraq, claimed responsibility in a statement posted Tuesday on an Islamist Web site.

Sectarian violence persisted Tuesday, with at least 41 Iraqis killed or found dead nationwide, including a top Baghdad University official who was shot to death while being driven home from work in the capital and a university student who was killed after final exams in the northern city of Mosul.

U.S. troops called in help from their British allies as a Royal Air Force plane bombed a building south of Baghdad, killing six insurgents, the U.S. command said.

A U.S. statement said the GR-4 Tornado jet was summoned after insurgents fled into a building following an attack on an Iraqi police station and checkpoint in Salman Pak. Four Iraqi vehicles were destroyed.

After the insurgents took shelter in the building, the British jet destroyed the target with a 2,000-pound bomb, the statement added. Two U.S. OH-58D helicopters also joined the fight, engaging about 30 insurgents with rocket and machine gun fire, the U.S. said.

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Associated Press writers Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Sameer N. Yacoub in Baghdad contributed to this report.