IRAQ’s parliament was suspended yesterday after Sunni MPs and ministers staged a boycott over sectarian attacks on Sunni Muslim communities.

Both members of opposition parties and the ruling coalition boycotted parliament and cabinet meetings in protest at the killings and arson attacks in the town of Muqdadiya in Diyala province, north-east of Baghdad.

MPs Raad al-Dahlaki and Nahida al-Daini from Diyala province said 43 people, including a Sunni imam, had been killed and nine mosques firebombed by Shi’ite mobs in the last week.