Iraq's Shia-led government ordered the arrest of the country's top Sunni cleric today on suspicion of "supporting terrorism", a move that could raise sectarian tensions further amid mounting violence.
An arrest warrant has been issued for Harith al-Dari, the head of the Muslim Clerics Association, a vocal defender of the once dominant Sunni minority's interests, Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani, a Shia, told Iraqiya state television.
Shia leaders have been up in arms about Dari this month, accusing him of advocating violence in televised comments that they said appeared to justify al Qaeda attacks in Iraq. It was not clear whether Dari, who has been abroad lately, was in the country.
He was not available for immediate comment. The move came after a day on which dozens of apparently Shia bus passengers were feard kidnapped at fake security checkpoints in Sunni west Baghdad and government officials argued over whether staff seized by suspected Shia militiamen from a ministry building had been tortured and killed.
Six missing minibuses were mostly taking Shias across mainly Sunni west Baghdad when gunmen, some in uniform, pulled them over for bogus security checks, police sources said.