Iraqis arrest 25 in murder of Sunni sheik

BAGHDAD (AP) — Twenty-five people have been arrested in the assassination of the leader of the U.S.-backed revolt by Sunni Arab tribesmen in Anbar province against al-Qaida in Iraq, a police official said Friday.

Those detained include the head of the security detail that was supposed to protect Sheik Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha, who was killed in a bombing Sept. 13, police Lt. Col. Jubeir Rashid said.

Rashid said the security chief, Capt. Karim al-Barghothi, told police that al-Qaida in Iraq offered him $1.5 million 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, Rashid said.

Abu Risha, who organized 25 Sunni Arab clans into an alliance against al-Qaida, died along with two bodyguards and a driver when a bomb exploded near his walled compound just west of Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad.

Iraqi officials said the blast occurred in view of a guard shack and an Iraqi police checkpoint, raising suspicion that the killing was an inside job.

The attack occurred 10 days after Abu Risha had met with President Bush in Anbar.

According to Rashid’s account, al-Barghothi allowed a suicide car bomber into the compound minutes before Abu Risha was due to enter.