25 Held in Slaying Of Iraqi Sunni Chief

Suspects Include Head of Security Detail

BAGHDAD, Sept. 22 -- The U.S. military on Saturday confirmed the arrests of 25 suspects in the assassination of a tribal leader who had allied himself with the United States and unified Sunni groups against the insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq.

The suspects were detained by the Iraqi police and include the head of the security detail that was supposed to protect Abdul Sattar Abu Risha, who was killed in a bombing Sept. 13, according to Lt. Col. Jubeir Rashid, an Iraqi police officer in Anbar province.

The killing of Abu Risha, just 10 days after he met with President Bush, dealt a blow to one of the few success stories in U.S. efforts to stabilize Iraq. The tribal leader was credited with bringing together sheiks in the western province of Anbar into an alliance against extremists, after years of U.S. failures to tame flash points such as Ramadi and Fallujah.

Rashid said Friday that Abu Risha's security chief, Capt. Karim al-Barghothi, confessed that al-Qaeda in Iraq had offered him $1.5 million for the slaying but that he was arrested before he could collect the money.

Two other bodyguards as well as some of Abu Risha's neighbors were also detained, Iraqi police said. The arrests took place two days after the bombing. The Islamic State of Iraq, a group believed to have been formed by al-Qaeda in Iraq, asserted responsibility for the assassination.

Abu Risha, who organized 25 Sunni Arab clans into an alliance, died along with two bodyguards and a driver when a bomb exploded near his walled compound just outside Ramadi, 60 miles west of Baghdad.

Marine Maj. Jeff Pool, a U.S. military spokesman for western Iraq, praised the Iraqi investigation into the attack.

The U.S. military earlier had announced that Fallah Khalifa Hiyas Fayyas al-Jumayli, an Iraqi also known as Abu Khamis and connected to Abu Risha's death and a plot to kill other tribal leaders, had been arrested during a raid north of Baghdad. Pool said Jumayli was arrested with two other people.

Abu Risha's death raised concerns that without his powerful presence in the Sunni alliance, Anbar could slide back into violence, but tribesmen in Anbar province have vowed not to be deterred in fighting their Sunni rivals.