At least nine of the Iraqi Finance Minister’s guards are being held on terrorism charges, officials said yesterday after the minister demanded the premier’s resignation following their arrest.

The dispute threatens to reignite a long-running feud between the secular, Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc, of which Finance Minister Rafa al-Essawi is a member, and Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Higher Judicial Council spokesman Abdelsattar Bayraqdar told AFP that nine of Essawi’s guards were detained under the anti-terrorism law, and that all the necessary arrest warrants had been obtained.

And he told Iraqiya state television that the commander of the guards had confessed to carrying out “terrorist acts”.

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