By Liz Sly,Chicago Tribune

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Sunni politicians Wednesday accused Iraq’s Shiite-led government of persecuting Sunnis and called for an international inquiry after the discovery of a bunker full of abused detainees at an Iraqi Interior Ministry facility.

As the furor over the torture scandal threatened to deepen sectarian tensions ahead of December’s election, six U.S. service members were reported killed in action, bringing to 52 the number of troops killed so far this month.

Five of them were Marines who died in a firefight with insurgents near the Syrian border during the military operation there aimed at defeating al-Qaeda fighters entrenched in the area, the military said. Sixteen enemy fighters were also killed in the engagement, according to a military statement.

The sixth casualty was a soldier in Baghdad who died of wounds received in a Nov. 15 roadside bombing. As of Wednesday, at least 2,079 members of the U.S. military have died in Iraq since the beginning of the war, according to an Associated Press count.

The discovery of the detainees, many of whom bore marks of torture, has come as a major embarrassment for the elected government of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, who took office last April vowing to replace the tyranny of the Saddam Hussein regime with a new era of human rights and democracy.

Al-Jaafari said there were 173 detainees in the bunker; the Interior Ministry put the number at 161.

The detainees, most of them Sunni, were discovered Sunday night in the Baghdad neighborhood of Jadriyah by U.S. forces hunting for a missing teenage boy who had been detained by Iraqi police. The boy was not found, U.S. officials said.

Gen. William Webster, the commander of American forces in Baghdad, said U.S. forces would not hesitate to investigate allegations of abuse at other Interior Ministry sites.

Al-Jaafari has ordered a government investigation into the allegations, but Sunni politicians said the government could not be trusted to investigate its own abuses and called for an international inquiry.

“The Islamic Party has reported on many occasions that there are men wearing Interior Ministry uniforms raiding houses at night and capturing men,” said Omar al-Jibouri, head of the Human Rights department of the Islamic Party. Corpses have been found … yet each time we complain to the Americans and the Iraqi government and ask them to investigate, we get nothing except denials and silence.”

The torture allegations go to the heart of the sectarian divide that has threatened Iraq with civil war since the Sunni minority boycotted January’s election, thereby ceding political power to the alliance of Shiite religious parties that now control the government.

Since then, Sunnis say, Shiite political leaders have used their power to wrest control of the security forces, notably the formidable Interior Ministry police commando and intelligence units against whom most of the allegations have been made.

U.S. officials are hoping Sunnis turn out to vote in large numbers at the election next month in order to have a government that more accurately reflects Iraq’s sectarian balance. Although the torture scandal has fueled Sunni anger, it may also help convince Sunnis that their complaints are being addressed.

“We’re getting some feedback that this inquiry in Jadriyah has meant an awful lot to the Sunni community,” Webster said.

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