Iraq’s main Sunni Arab political coalition today challenged preliminary results from last week’s parliamentary elections and warned that any attempt to falsify the outcome could further destabilise the country.

Iraq’s new electoral law, drawn up in a bid to address the concerns of minorities, is almost certain to guarantee more parliamentary seats for Sunni Arabs, who boycotted the previous vote in January.

Gunmen stormed the compound of a Saudi company in a fashionable Baghdad neighbourhood, seizing an American, a Nepalese and four Iraqis after a gun battle in which a guard and one of the attackers were killed.