BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Sixty-four Sunni clerics called Friday for more Sunni Arabs to enlist in Iraq's nascent security forces.

Friday, April 1, 2005 Posted: 10:57 AM EST (1557 GMT)

Sunnis enjoyed power during Saddam Hussein's regime, but have been alienated by many of the changes since the U.S.-led invasion two years ago.

Friday's call was issued during weekly prayers at mosques throughout the country.

Ahmed Abdul Ghafour al-Samarrai, one of the members of the Muslim Scholars Association who signed the statement, said the clerics called upon Iraqis -- particularly Sunnis -- to join the country's security services.

"The security of this nation is every Iraqi's responsibility," the call said.

He said that since a proper national security force had replaced militias, now was the time for Sunni participation.

In recent months, insurgents increasingly have targeted Iraqi police and other security forces rather than focusing their attacks on coalition troops.

Much of the insurgency is taking place in the so-called Sunni Triangle, west of Baghdad.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said March 20 that he expects the number of Iraqi security forces to grow to nearly 200,000, from what he said is a current level of 145,000.

"And they'll take on more and more responsibility," he predicted.

Officials have said U.S. troop levels will decrease as Iraqi troops prove themselves in the field.

Sunnis largely stayed away from the January 30 elections for a transitional legislature, where power resides largely with Shiite Arabs and Kurds.

The police chief in Balad Ruz and his driver were shot and killed Friday, and an Interior Ministry commando was killed during a raid, police said.

The police chief, Col. Hatem Rashid Mohammed, was getting into his car when gunmen opened fire in the town about 30 miles (48 kilometers) north of Baghdad, police in Diyala province said.

An aide was critically wounded, police said.

In the Daniya section of the city, an Interior Ministry officer was killed during a commando raid on a house.

Authorities said they detained a number of insurgents in the operation.

In the northern cities of Mosul and Tal Afar, U.S. and Iraqi forces arrested eight suspected insurgents and seized weapons in raids over the past two days, the U.S. military said.