Iraq's leading Sunni religious organisation yes-terday accused the Iraqi police and a Shia Islamist party of assassinating some 15 Sunni, including pro-insurgent clerics, in an escalation of sectarian tension.

"This is state terrorism by the Ministry of Interior," said Hareth al-Dhari, secretary general of the Association of Muslim Scholars, standing before a funeral congregation at the Umm al Qura mosque alongside representatives of other Islamic groups, with the coffin of one of the killed sheikhs in front of him.