BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's largest group of Sunni Muslim clerics ordered their followers Wednesday to boycott January's parliamentary elections if American forces don't break off their military campaign in the flash-point city of Fallujah, which is now ringed by U.S. Marines and besieged by daily aerial bombardment.

Gathering from across northern and western Iraq at the Umm al Qura mosque outside Baghdad, the clerics in the Muslim Scholars Association, whose followers make up 35 percent of Iraq's population, called on Arab leaders throughout the Middle East to condemn U.S. actions in Fallujah and "end their silence, which brings frustration and anger." They ruled that Iraqis have a religious duty to fight American-led forces, according to a statement issued from the mosque.