Iraq issues arrest warrant for VP

BAGHDAD - Iraq's Shiite-led government has issued an arrest warrant for the Sunni vice-president, accusing him of running a hit squad that assassinated government and security officials - extraordinary charges a day after the last US troops left the country.

Vice-President Tariq al-Hashemi left Baghdad on Sunday for the semiautonomous Iraqi region of Kurdistan, presumably hoping that Kurdish authorities would not turn him in. Investigative judges banned him the same day from traveling outside of Iraq.

Al-Hashemi told a news conference in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil that he has not committed any "sin" against Iraq. He described the charges against him as "fabricated".