Deputy Interior Minister Adnan Al-Asadi said Tuesday the cell is linked to Saddam Hussein’s outlawed Baath party and was responsible for about 300 attacks against government employees and security forces.

The alleged leader of the cell, Abdul-Khaliq Abdul-Sattar, told a news conference organized by the ministry that he received orders from Izzat Ibrahim Al-Douri, the highest ranking member of Saddam’s ousted regime still at large.

Sectarian tensions are running high in Iraq after the government issued an arrest warrant against the vice president on charges he ran a hit squad targeting government officials.