Baghdad: An Al Qaida front group has warned that it will hunt down and kill Sunni Arab tribal leaders who are allies of the United States and its Iraqi partners.
The warning followed the assassination of Abdul Sattar Abu Risha, who spearheaded the uprising against Al Qaida in Iraq.
In a statement posted on an Islamist website on Friday, the Islamic State of Iraq said it had formed a "special security committee" to "assassinate the tribal figures, the traitors".
"We will publish lists of names of the tribal figures to scandalize them in front of our blessed tribes," the statement added.
Some 1,500 mourners called for revenge as they buried Abu Risha on Friday. Abu Risha was killed in a bomb blast near his home in Ramadi on Thursday.
Also on Saturday, coalition troops traded gunfire with a purported Al Qaida operative near the Diyala town of Muqdadiyah, killing him and arresting his son, police said.
