An Iraqi judge has issued an arrest warrant against leading politician and former Pentagon favourite Ahmad Chalabi and his nephew Salem Chalabi, the head of the tribunal trying Saddam Hussein.
Zuhair al-Maliki, chief investigative judge of the Central Criminal Court of Iraq, said an arrest warrant had been issued against Ahmad Chalabi in connection with counterfeiting money and against his nephew on a murder charge.
Former chairman of the Iraqi governing council Ahmad Chalabi
Ahmad Chalabi, who helped lead the United States to war in Iraq, was once touted as a potential leader of the country after Saddam was ousted, but has since been spurned by Washington and many in Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's interim government.
Allawi, trying to quell a Shi'ite Muslim uprising, travelled to the holy city of Najaf yesterday and ordered Shi'ite fighters to lay down their weapons. But fighting raged on, with US helicopter gunships pounding guerrilla positions.
Five days of intense fighting in the heart of Najaf, across southern Iraq and in several districts of Baghdad have killed or wounded hundreds of Shi'ite militants, the US military says, and piled pressure on Allawi's 40-day-old government.
In an effort to staunch Shi'ite radicalism lead by rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and a 16-month Sunni Muslim insurgency, the government offered an amnesty for low-level guerrillas while reinstating the death penalty for hardline criminals.
Despite that approach, however, fighting shows little sign of abating. Kidnapping - a common currency of insurgents in recent months - continues apace.
In Kerbala, an Iranian diplomat was kidnapped by militants, according to the Iranian embassy, becoming the second foreign diplomat seized in a wave of kidnappings since April.
The string of abductions, mostly targeting foreign truck drivers, appears aimed at forcing foreign governments to pull their troops out, and foreign companies to cease operations.
Ahmad Chalabi, who fell out with Washington over accusations he provided false information on weapons of mass destruction, said he would come home to fight the charges brought by the US-appointed judge which he said were politically motivated.
"I do not know who is doing this and why. They are not patriots. I have done my duty and helped liberate Iraq," he said in Iran, where he was on holiday. "I will return in a few days. I can easily prove that these charges are untrue and I intend to defend myself and clear my name."
Officials in Washington have said Chalabi is being investigated for leaking secrets to Iran. In 1992 he was convicted in absentia of bank fraud by a military court in Jordan. He says those charges too were politically motivated.
Salem Chalabi, a lawyer, is leading the work of the Iraqi Special Tribunal which will try Saddam, the deposed president captured last year by US troops.