BAGHDAD - Fighting broke out between the Iraqi army and a Sunni lawmaker's security detail on Monday after three soldiers were killed in a bomb attack, with both sides blaming the other for firing the first shot.
Military spokesman Brigadier General Qasim Atta said the soldiers died when an Iraqi army patrol was hit by a booby trap 250 metres (yards) from the Baghdad home of Adnan al-Dulaimi, the leader of a Sunni parliamentary bloc.
"While trying to rescue the injured, our force came under fire from the house of Dulaimi and we responded to the source of the fire," Atta told AFP.
"We are sealing off the region and the situation is under the control of the security forces. We have orders to destroy the source of any attack on our security forces," he added.
Dulaimi's office gave a different account of the clash.
"Government forces attacked the convoy of Dr Adnan al-Dulaimi, head of the National Concord Front and secretary general of the General Conference for the People of Iraq," the office said in a statement.
According to Dulaimi's statement, Iraqi army soldiers unleashed a barrage of automatic fire on Dulaimi's convoy as he pulled into his compound at 10.00 am (0600 GMT), striking several vehicles, including his own.
"Thank God, Dr Dulaimi was not hurt," the statement added.
His office also claimed that the Iraqi army fired at his house in the Adil neighbourhood in western Baghdad.
Dulaimi's party is nominally part of Iraq's ruling national unity coalition but he is an outspoken critic of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and the country's Shiite-led security forces.
05/21/2007 12:26 GMT