BAGHDAD (AFP) — Iraq's faltering political process was thrown into fresh turmoil on Saturday when the main Sunni bloc walked out of parliament in protest at a security crackdown on its leader Adnan al-Dulaimi.
The latest political upheaval came as suspected Al-Qaeda militants killed 14 people in a raid on a Shiite village.
The National Concord Front, the main Sunni bloc with 44 MPs in the 275-member parliament, walked out of the assembly, saying it would return after Dulaimi himself comes back to the legislature.
"We announce our boycott of the parliament until Adnan al-Dulaimi returns to the assembly today or tomorrow," the bloc's Abdul Karim al-Samarraie told the assembly.
"When I went to meet him I was stopped and told that he is under house arrest. This is a violation of the rights of an MP who wants to come to the parliament," Samarraie said.
After his statement the bloc's MPs walked out of the assembly hall. Mahmud al-Mashhadani, the Sunni parliament speaker, joined them.
Shiite MP Haider al-Ibadi said the Dulaimi issue should not be discussed in the assembly.
"There is an investigation and parliament should not interfere in it," he said before the Sunnis walked out.
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh denied that Dulaimi was under house arrest.
"What is being said about house arrest is not true. It is only protection given to Dulaimi until the situation is clear," Dabbagh told state television Al-Iraqiya.
Political tension has risen sharply following the security crackdown on Dulaimi after the Iraqi army said on Thursday it found car bombs near his Baghdad offices.
After the Iraqi military detonated the car bombs found near Dulaimi's Hail Adel neighbourhood office in Baghdad troops detained his son and dozens of bodyguards, while Dulaimi said he was put under "confinement" in his home.
Dabbagh said there was "criminal evidence" against the bodyguards.
"They are being interrogated. If questioning finds that they are criminals they will be referred to the judiciary, otherwise they will be released," he told Al-Iraqiya.
He told the television: "I am not supporting any terrorist network. I am a political worker. If any of my bodyguards is involved in terrorism, isolate him and punish him. I call upon all Iraqis to save Iraq."
Tension between the Front and Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government has been running high since the Sunni bloc withdrew its six ministers from the cabinet on August 1, accusing Maliki of failing to rein in Shiite militias and of detaining Sunnis arbitrarily.
Maliki has tried without success to persuade the Sunni ministers to return, according to Dabbagh.
Meanwhile insurgents raided a village north of Baghdad on Saturday, killing at least 14 people, police and medical officials said.
"Al-Qaeda militants early this morning attacked the village of Duailiyah in which 10 people were killed and several wounded," said police Colonel Hazim Yasin from the nearby city of Baquba.
Another police officer in Baquba said four more bodies were found after Iraqi troops arrived at the scene, adding that the dead included women and children.
"Dozens of militants attacked the village. They first fired mortars and then raided the village, using gunfire," he said.
The attack coincided with the release of monthly figures showing that the number of Iraqis killed in November fell to 606 -- the lowest toll in 21 months.
The previous lowest figure of Iraqi losses, according to data collected by the interior, defence and health ministries, was 637 reported in February 2006 when the revered Shiite Al-Askari shrine in the central city of Samarra was bombed, triggering sectarian conflict that still continues.
A total of 887 Iraqis were killed in October this year and 840 in September.
Of those killed in November, 537 were civilians, 24 were soldiers and 45 were policemen.
Mirroring the fall in civilian deaths, combat fatalities among US troops in Iraq dropped to a 20-month low at 37 in November, according to an AFP tally based on Pentagon figures.
The US military, meanwhile, said American forces killed one suspected Al-Qaeda fighter and arrested 16 others in a series of operations in central and northern Baghdad on Friday and Saturday.
The operations targeted car bomb networks and a leader involved in operating a suicide attack cell, a military statement said.
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