Baghdad: Iraqi authorities have seized the headquarters of the country s most influential Sunni clerical group, sealing off its west Baghdad compound and accusing the organisation of supporting al-Qaida in Iraq.

The group, the Association of Muslim Scholars, has long opposed the US military presence in Iraq and has often taken public positions in support of Sunni insurgent goals. The association spearheaded the Sunni boycott of the January 2005 elections and has frequently been at odds with the Shiite-dominated government.

The timing of yesterday s move suggests that the government is more confident it can take action against the hardline Sunni clerics without risking a backlash within the Sunni community and reprisal attacks by al-Qaida and other insurgent groups. The raid on the clerical group began about 9 am. Iraqi security forces dispatched by the Sunni Endowment, a government agency that cares for Sunni mosques and shrines, surrounded the association's headquarters at the Um al-Qura mosque and demanded the staff leave by noon, the association said in a statement posted on its Web site.

Troops shut down the association s radio station, which operated from the mosque, and told employees to remove all personal belongings and furniture, the statement said. "The association has always justified killing and assassinations carried out by al-Qaida," the head of the Sunni Endowments, Ahmed Abdul-Ghafoor al-Samarraie, told reporters at the mosque, built by Saddam Hussein to commemorate the 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

Source : PTI