Sunnis call for halt to US military offensive

SUNNI Arab leaders demanded yesterday that US and Iraqi troops suspend military operations in heavily Sunni areas, accusing the Shiite-led government of trying to divide the nation ahead of next month's legislative elections.

Some 1,100 Iraqi lawyers, meanwhile, said they withdrew from Saddam Hussein's defence team over the slayings of two colleagues representing co-defendants of the ousted leader.

The US military reported two marines were killed on Saturday by a bomb west of Baghdad and an American soldier died in a vehicle accident in western Iraq. At least 2,065 US military personnel have died since the war began in 2003.