Iraq in crisis: VP accused of terrorism

Iraq's Shia-dominated government accused its Sunni vice president of terrorism yesterday, plunging the country into its deepest political crisis in years only one day after U.S. troops departed.

As an arrest warrant was issued for Tariq al-Hashimi, three men said on Iraqi television that they had worked as his bodyguards and had carried out bombings and assassinations, killing as many as a half-dozen people. They said Hashimi knew what they were doing.

But many questioned whether the allegations rang true.

Hashimi was in the semiautonomous region of Kurdistan, in crisis talks with Kurdish leaders, and could not be reached immediately for comment.

Iraqi Kurds called for calm, as did U.S. officials in Washington. The charges came despite weekend talks among President Jalal Talabani, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Sunni politicians and U.S. Embassy officials that appeared to resolve the issue with the creation of a judicial committee to "thoroughly investigate" the terrorism charges.

"We are closely monitoring these reports," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said. "We're urging all political sides in Iraq to work out their differences peaceably, politically, through dialogue."

The three men speaking on television offered startling details of what they said were their missions -- how an ID was used to get past a checkpoint, how explosives were packed in a black, plastic garbage bag, how they were told precisely the minute that convoys would be passing.

In recent months, Maliki, a Shia, has overseen the arrest of hundreds of suspected sympathizers of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party. His critics say he has gone overboard in consolidating his power.