Iraq: Sunni vice president pledges to fight arrest

February 21, 2012 by legitgov

Iraq: Sunni vice president pledges to fight arrest 20 Feb 2012 Iraq's Sunni vice president asked for popular support Monday to fight government charges that he commandeered death squads and said he would continue to defy arrest with the help of the nation's powerful Kurds in a showdown that tests the limits of Baghdad's reach. The government's case against Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi deepens tensions in a country still splintered by Sunni and Shiite sectarian rivalries. It now also threatens to draw a new wedge between Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, and Kurdish leaders in Iraq's North who refuse to hand over al-Hashemi for trial.