WASHINGTON — At least 100 Iraqi national police and Ministry of Interior officers engaged in a shootout outside of Baghdad’s Green Zone last night in an effort to apprehend the man who until late last month was Iraq’s minister of culture.

Yesterday in Baghdad, a justice from Iraq’s Central Criminal Court issued a warrant cleared by Prime Minister al-Maliki to arrest the former culture minister, As’ad Kamal al-Hashemi, a Sunni Arab, in connection with the February 8, 2005, murders of Ayman and Jamal al-Alusi, the two sons of Mithal al-Alusi, a former chief in the de-Baathification commission and today an independent member of Parliament. Mr. Hashemi announced his resignation from his post as minister on May 23 under criticism from some leaders in his own party, known as the Iraqi Accordance Front or Tawafuq.

One American military officer and two Iraqi government sources, who all asked to remain anonymous, confirmed that Iraqi forces, accompanied at first by American military escorts, raided Mr. Hashemi’s home in the Salhiya neighborhood of Baghdad at 11:30 p.m. Monday.

If Mr. Hashemi is brought into custody, he would be the first minister in Mr. Maliki’s government arrested for terrorism under the new Baghdad security plan. It would also be an escalation in the rift between the current Shiite and Sunni parties inside the Iraqi Parliament.

As The New York Sun first reported last month, the general in charge of the Baghdad security plan presented dossiers to Mr. Maliki on April 18 about 15 Sunni parliamentarians with recommendations to charge them with material support for terrorism. The American embassy fretted at the time that such high-profile arrests would erode the Shiite government’s credibility with Sunni Iraqis.

According to the two Iraqi government sources, the American military escort turned around from the mission on the way to Mr. Hashemi’s house from the Green Zone in the center of the city. When the Iraqi forces got to the house, according to these sources, they encountered heavy fire and called for backup. At press time, these sources did not know if Mr. Hashemi was in custody.

The American military officer confirmed this account as well. This official did say, however, that the evidence against Mr. Hashemi was not disputed within the Iraqi Multinational Forces Command. Nonetheless, American commanders in Baghdad did not think it prudent to arrest a high-profile Sunni Arab with an outstanding arrest warrant from 2005. “The truth is there are other guys in the government who have not been arrested who are guilty of very bad stuff too,” this officer said. He added that there is still an outstanding arrest warrant for Moqtada al-Sadr in connection with the murder of Sheikh al-Khoie, a warrant that Mr. Maliki’s government has shown no interest in enforcing.

One of the Iraqi government officials yesterday said the evidence against Mr. Hashemi included testimony from other assassins arrested for the February 8, 2005, attempt on Mr. Alusi’s life.

The attempt on Mr. Alusi’s life and murder of his sons came after Mr. Alusi announced that he had traveled to Israel to attend a counterterrorism conference. At the time, Sunni Baathists as well as jihadist groups claimed credit for the murder.