An arrest warrant against a Sunni Cabinet minister is another step by the Shiite-led government to marginalise the Iraq’s Sunni minority, the official’s political organisation said today.

A suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd of Iraqis outside an army recruitment centre in Baghdad today, killing 21 people and injuring 27 more.

Unidentified gunmen opened fire today on a convoy carrying former Iraqi Governing Council member Ahmad Chalabi in an apparent assassination attempt that wounded two of his bodyguards, Chalabi’s spokesman said.

Ahmad Chalabi, a former governing council member wanted in Iraq on counterfeiting charges, has returned to the country to face the charges, an official from his political party said today.