Top Sunni official fired from Iraqi government

A leading senior Sunni officials who had urged Sunni Arabs to join Iraq's political process has been fired, the government said Saturday.

Al Dulaimi said he was fired over his outspoken complaints about the killings and arrests of his community by the police.

"I have been chased out of my job because I defend the Sunnis," Al Dulaimi said.

"They wanted to keep me away from this important post from which I can defend our Sunni people," Al Dulaimi said.

On Friday, about 1,000 Sunnis staged a protest near the heavily guarded Green Zone, accusing the Shiite-dominated government's security forces of killing Sunnis under the guise of fighting terrorism. Protesters also demanded that American and other foreign troops leave the country.

Most members of the minority Sunni Arab community, which forms the core of the anti-American insurgency, stayed home during the country's landmark Jan. 30 elections, either fearing insurgent attacks or heeding boycott calls by rebels and hard-line clerics.

Al Dulaimi had been outspoken in his criticism of the detentions and killings.