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25 are being held in slaying of a Sunni leader, U.S. says

BAGHDAD - The U.S. military on Saturday confirmed the arrests of 25 people linked to the assassination of the leader of the U.S.-backed revolt by Sunni Arab tribesmen in the western Anbar province against al-Qaida in Iraq.

The suspects, who include the head of the security detail that was supposed to protect Sheik Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha, killed in a bombing Sept. 13, were detained by Iraqi police, according to Lt. Col. Jubeir Rashid, an Iraqi police officer.

Abu Risha's killing - just 10 days after his meeting with President Bush - dealt a blow to one of the few success stories in U.S. efforts to stabilize Iraq. The tribal leader was credited with bringing together Anbar sheiks into an alliance against the extremists after years of American failure to tame flash points such as Ramadi and Fallujah.

Rashid said Friday that Abu Risha's security chief, Capt. Karim al-Barghothi, confessed that al-Qaida in Iraq had offered him $1.5-million for the slaying but that he was arrested before he could collect the money.

Two other bodyguards and some of Abu Risha's neighbors were also detained, Iraqi police said. The arrests took place two days after the bombing. Al-Qaida front group the Islamic State of Iraq claimed responsibility for the assassination.

Abu Risha, who organized 25 Sunni Arab clans into an alliance against al-Qaida, died along with two bodyguards and a driver when a bomb exploded near his walled compound just west of Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad.

The U.S. military earlier said an al-Qaida-linked militant, identified as Fallah Khalifa Hiyas Fayyas al-Jumayli, an Iraqi also known as Abu Khamis and connected to Abu Risha's death and a plot to kill other tribal leaders, had been arrested during a raid north of Baghdad.

[Last modified September 23, 2007, 01:36:56]