Four die after Sunni leader arrested

BAGHDAD | Gunfire erupted Saturday in central Baghdad after the local leader of a Sunni group that broke with al Qaeda was arrested for his purported role in terrorist acts, Iraqi officials said.

Adil al-Mashhadani, the head of an Awakening Council group, was detained Saturday along with an aide after a warrant was issued for his arrest, Iraqi military spokesman Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi said.

A gunfight broke out after Iraqi army and police units served the warrant in Fadhil, a Sunni enclave on the east bank of the Tigris River that was run by al Qaeda until U.S. and Iraqi soldiers gained control in 2007.

Four people - three civilians and a policeman - were killed and 10 people were wounded in the shooting, according to police and hospital officials. A Fadhil resident said by telephone that the neighborhood was quiet Saturday night, with Iraqi troops sealing off the area and U.S. helicopters patrolling overhead.

A U.S. military spokesman, Col. Bill Buckner, confirmed the arrest and said the move was not directed at the Awakening Council.

The rise of such volunteer groups, also known as Sons of Iraq, is widely seen as a major contribution to the sharp reduction in violence following the U.S. troop surge of 2007.

Volunteer fighters, many of them ex-insurgents, man checkpoints, provide intelligence to Iraqi and U.S. forces and take part in joint security patrols.

How the Shi’ite-led government deals with the Sunni security volunteers is widely seen as a test of its ability to win the loyalty of disaffected Sunnis - an essential step in forging a lasting peace in Iraq.

Last October, the Iraqi government assumed responsibility for paying the salaries of more than 90,000 security volunteers. The government is to start paying the last 10,000 volunteers still on the U.S. payroll on April 1.

On Saturday, however, leaders of several Awakening Council groups complained that the government has not paid them in months, with some threatening to quit the movement.

“We have not received our salaries in two months,” said Ahmed Suleiman al-Jubouri, a leader of a group that mans checkpoints in south Baghdad. “We will wait until the end of April, and if the government does not pay us our salaries, then we will abandon our work.”

Similar complaints were also raised by Sons of Iraq groups in Azamiyah, a former al Qaeda stronghold in Baghdad, and in Diyala province near the capital.

Also Saturday, a senior aide to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki confirmed that contacts were under way to win the release of five Britons taken hostage in May 2007 but denied Arab media reports that the deal had been finalized.

The widely read Saudi-owned news Web site Elaph quoted a leader of the Shi’ite extremist group Asaib Ahl al-Haq, or League of the Righteous, as saying one of the five Britons would be freed “very soon” in exchange for 10 of its members.