Anti-Qaeda cleric escapes bombing

BAGHDAD: Militants bombed the house of a prominent anti-Al-Qaeda Sunni cleric, seriously wounding him and killing three of his relatives as the network apparently steps up its campaign against Sunnis who have turned against it.

The attack, which was followed by a fierce firefight, came after Sheikh Wathiq Al Obeidi called on residents in the northern Baghdad neighborhood of Azamiyah to rise up against foreign fighters, a reference to Al Qaeda in Iraq, which recently has seen a surge in opposition from fellow Sunnis.

A Sunni insurgent umbrella group had threatened the cleric on Tuesday calling him a traitor and accusing him of working with the Anbar Salvation Council, an alliance of Sunni tribal leaders who are fighting Al Qaeda in Iraq in the province of the same name west of Baghdad.

"The so-called Wathiq and his followers ... are a legitimate target for mujahedeen (holy warriors)," the statement said.

Followers denied the cleric, a former preacher at the Abu Hanifa mosque, was linked to the US-backed Anbar group.

But he issued his own call against Al Qaeda in Iraq last week during a funeral prayer for two nephews killed by militants believed to be linked to the group.