BAGHDAD (Agencies)
The leader of Iraq's largest Sunni political bloc said on Sunday his movement would return to parliament after he was allowed to travel to a hotel from his house, where he had been confined for three days.
"Since this house arrest has been lifted, the Accordance Front will return to sessions of parliament," Adnan al-Dulaimi told an Iraqi television station. The Front walked out of parliament on Saturday in protest at what it called Dulaimi's house arrest.
Dulaimi was moved to the Green Zone, in a government bid to protect him after the arrest of seven of his bodyguards which leaves him vulnerable.
The guards tested "positive" for handling explosives after troops found two cars bombs at the politician's Baghdad office.
"We have found positive traces of explosives on seven of his guards," government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said, speaking in English. "Their hands are polluted with explosives."
Dabbagh also said one guard had the key to the car which was rigged with explosives and found near Dulaimi's office in the capital's Hail Adel neighborhood on Thursday.
The Iraqi army said on Thursday that soldiers had found two car bombs near Dulaimi's office and later detonated them.
It also detained his son and dozens of his bodyguards. Dulaimi said he himself had been placed under house arrest since Friday.
Dabbagh said Dulaimi was now being transferred from his house to the Al-Rasheed Hotel inside the heavily-fortified Green Zone, the seat of both the Iraqi government and the U.S. embassy.
Dabbagh has previously denied that the MP was under house arrest.
The moves against the prominent Sunni leader have threatened to derail the country's already stuttering political process.
Dulaimi earlier dismissed reports that he was being threatened by a local anti-Qaeda front after one of his bodyguards allegedly murdered its leader.
"This is false. I am not threatened by any such force," he said. |
