TIKRIT, Iraq - US forces apologised to a senior Sunni Arab religious leader and his two sons after arresting them in a raid on the familyÂ’s home they said was based on bad intelligence, an Iraqi security source said. Sheikh Jamal Abdel Karim al-Dabaan and his sons were released on Saturday, hours after their arrests, said the source, an official at the joint US-Iraqi co-ordination centre in Tikrit, 175 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad.
There was no immediate comment from the US military.
Dabaan is a top Mufti, or religious authority, for most of IraqÂ’s minority Sunni Muslim community. The deputy governor of Salahaddin province, a mostly Sunni region, said earlier most provincial government offices had suspended work in protest at the arrest of Dabaan and were refusing to return to work until he was freed. |