Warrant issued for Iraqi minister

The warrant for Mr Hashemi's arrest was issued on Monday

Judicial authorities in Baghdad have issued a warrant for the arrest of the Iraqi minister of culture on terrorism charges, officials have said.

Police raided Asaad Kamal al-Hashemi's house overnight and arrested at least six of the Sunni politician's guards.

The minister has been accused of giving orders for the killing in February 2005 of the two sons of another prominent Sunni politician, Mithal al-Alusi.

Police believe Mr Hashemi is currently out of the country, in Jordan.

Mr Hashemi is a member of the Iraqi Islamic Party, which stood as part of the Iraqi Accord Front in the December 2005 election.

He was appointed culture minister in May 2006.

'Confessions'

The warrant for Mr Hashemi's arrest was issued on Monday by Iraq's Supreme Judicial Council.

Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the warrant was a result of the "accusations and confessions" of the two men who carried out the attack on Mr Alusi.

They confessed that the planning and all the orders came from the current minister Ali al-Dabbagh Iraqi government spokesman

"They confessed that the planning and all the orders came from the current [culture] minister," he said.

"The minister was then an imam in a mosque."

Mr Alusi, the leader of the Iraqi Nation Party, was ambushed as he waited for his car near his home in Baghdad.

His two sons, Ayman and Jamal, as well as a bodyguard were shot dead in the attack.

Mr Hashemi's party condemned the arrest warrant as part of the "marginalising policy against prominent Sunni leaders to push them away from the political process".

It warned the Iraq's Shia-dominated government to avoid "playing with fire by continuing the policy of fabricating lies to exclude Sunni politicians and officials from the Iraqi arena".