BAGHDAD, Feb 9 (AFP) - An Iraqi politician bitterly attacked the country's biggest Sunni Muslim religious organisation on Thursday, the day after his two sons were gunned down.
Speaking as he waited for the bodies of his sons to arrive at his family home, Mithal al-Alusi, a Sunni who has caused controversy by calling for normalised ties with Israel, accused the Sunni clergy of "siding" with terrorists.
"I have a message to the Committee of Muslim Scholars: They should know that they have no right to talk on behalf of Sunnis," said Alusi.
"Let them talk in the name of their own party. The Committee of Muslim Scholars is a political party. I warn them, and I mean it, to stop siding with terrorism. They will be punished by the criminal law."
The Committee of Muslim Scholars, the main religious organisation for Iraqi Sunnis, called for a boycott of the country's landmark January 30 election. Since the vote it has demanded a timetable for the withdrawal of US troops in Iraq as a condition for joining talks on a new government and constitution.
Alusi, the outspoken leader of the Democratic Party of the Iraqi Nation, narrowly missed the attempt on his life which claimed the lives of his sons, Ayman and Jamal, aged 22 and 30. A bodyguard was also killed.
Alusi decided at the last minute not to take the car in which his sons were travelling. It came under attack 200 metres (yards) from the family home.
Alusi, a former spokesman for the Shiite party of Ahmed Chalabi, also appealed for unity against the insurgents who have claimed thousands of lives in Iraq over the past year.
"We must firmly face terrorism. We must open up to whoever wants to rebuild Iraq, and to harshly impose the law on criminals.
"No dialogue with the terrorists. We have to build a state of law and constitutions."
"It is time for the Iraqi government to act. We all have to do something. It is the responsibility of everybody. My two sons were killed and many of our sons are being killed every day. The phantoms of death have no place in today's Iraq," said Alusi.
02/09/2005 13:42 GMT - AFP