WASHINGTON — The Iraqi Sunni sheik credited with sparking the rebellion against Al Qaeda — and who was murdered Thursday — was scheduled to visit Washington last week, according to two American officials and an Iraqi politician close to the slain leader.

Yesterday, a State Department spokesman confirmed that Sheik Abdul Sattar al-Rishawi had applied for a visa to visit Washington. “We cleared him with absolutely no reservations, and the visa was being held up due to paperwork with the application and sponsor,” the spokesman said.

Sheik Abdul Sattar, or as Iraqis called him, Abu Risha, was the leader of the Anbar Awakening, a political front that President Bush and General David Petraeus credit with driving Al Qaeda from its base in Anbar province this year. The late sheik was also emerging as a national Sunni politician who could provide Iraqis an alternative to the corrupted Sunni Tawafuq faction that started a boycott of the government in August. The Tawafuq bloc comprises three Sunni fundamentalist Muslim parties that have called for a withdrawal of American troops and supported violence against American troops. Some of the party’s leadership has been implicated in acts of terrorism.

An American military official yesterday said the delay in Abu Risha’s visa was in part political. This source pinned the decision to scuttle the trip on senior leaders at the State Department. However, the State Department spokesman yesterday dismissed the charge.

According to the military official, the State Department in particular is wary of following through too much on General David Petraeus’s “bottom up” strategy. “There were howls of complaints when Abu Risha met with President Bush over Labor Day,” this official said. “The truth of the matter is that the more we strengthen the tribes, the less cooperation we are going to get from the Sunnis in Baghdad.”

Last week, the American ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, pointed to ad hoc efforts from the government of Prime Minister al-Maliki to share oil revenue with the Sunni-dominated Anbar province in the absence of an oil law, one of the key political benchmarks for the Iraqi government that remains unfulfilled.

An independent Iraqi parliamentarian, Mithal al-Alusi, who was an ally of the Anbari sheik, yesterday confirmed that Abu Risha intended to travel to America with a delegation. Mr. Alusi said Abu Risha had intended to make the case to Congress last week for the same strategic patience counseled by General Petraeus.

Mr. Alusi also said that in August, Abu Risha said he hoped to be martyred, or made a shahid. “I met with him in August at Ibrahim Jaafari’s house for dinner in Baghdad in the Green Zone, and he said to me, ‘I wish to have the honor to be a shahid before you.’ From his understanding, I am a target for the terrorists, he is a target of the terrorists, so we were allies.”

Mr. Alusi said the process for even Iraqi parliamentarians to receive a visa to travel to America is frustrating. “The visa issue in Baghdad is very terrible, it now takes weeks to get a visa even if you are a politician going back to the Iraqi governing council. If I ask for a visa, it takes at least three weeks until I have it, maybe more,” he said.

Yesterday, the spokesman for Multinational Forces Iraq, Navy Rear Admiral Mark Fox, told reporters that coalition forces had tracked down a suspect in the assassination. “Investigative and intelligence reports indicate Fallah Khalifa Hiyas Fayyas al-Jumayli, also known as Abu Khamis, was involved in the planning and execution of the plot to kill the sheik and was also plotting to kill other leaders of the Anbar Awakening Council as well,” he said.

Mr. Alusi said he suspected that Al Qaeda was responsible for the murder in conjunction with Syrian intelligence. “Who benefits from this?” Mr. Alusi asked. “Syrians, they benefit. Before Abdul Sattar Abu Risha, they had the space to do what they want. Because of him, Syria has been limited.” He also said he suspected some members of the Tawafuq political bloc whom he said were threatened by the Anbar Awakening.