Mr Maliki's government has since issued a warrant for Mr Battat's release, but Sunnis say that the fact he currently remains free shows they are not taking the threat seriously. As proof, they point out that Shia militants with much more blood on their hands are also at liberty, in particular the Iran-backed League of the Righteous, which was responsible for the 2007 kidnapping of the British IT consultant, Peter Moore, and his four bodyguards, as well as thousands of attacks on British and US troops.