Iraq MP 'barred from parliament'

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A senior Iraqi Sunni Arab MP, Adnan al-Dulaimi, says Iraqi soldiers have stopped him from going to parliament.

Soldiers have been deployed around his Baghdad house since Friday, after more than 40 of Mr Dulaimi's staff were arrested in a joint Iraqi-US operation.

Security forces say they launched the operation after finding a car bomb in the MP's compound - a claim he denies.

Mr Dulaimi heads Iraq's main Sunni political bloc, which pulled out of the Shia-led government in August.

The US-led coalition says the Iraqi soldiers have been deployed in the area around Mr Dulaimi's house to guarantee the MP's security.

Tensions rising

The joint Iraqi-US military operation at the MP's house and office began on Thursday night.

An American spokesman says that a car, rigged with a bomb, was found near the MP's compound.

According to the Americans, one of Mr Dulaimi's bodyguards had the keys to that car.

Adnan Dulaimi believes that he was the target of a failed assassination plot that has been used to discredit him, says the BBC's Crispin Thorold in Baghdad.

The MP says he is not a sponsor of terrorism - "we are the ones who are subject to terrorism," he said on Friday.

Mr Dulaimi has in the past complained against the operation of Shia militias and death squads, and strongly criticised Shia links with Iran before leaving the government earlier this year.

Whatever the truth of this incident, it seems certain to increase tensions between the main Sunni Arab political bloc and supporters of the Shia Prime Minister, Nouri Maliki, our correspondent says.