BAGHDAD, Iraq — Prominent Sunni clerics who had condemned the new Iraqi government opened the door yesterday to participation of their followers in the army and police.

Their "fatwa," or religious edict, offered a bit of hope on a day of continued violence when bombers damaged one of Iraq's most cherished religious monuments, a police chief was assassinated and at least five insurgents were killed in fighting.

Although the edict from the influential Association of Muslim Scholars came with conditions that made it uncertain whether followers could serve alongside U.S. military forces, an Iraqi government spokesman said it was a clear sign that the clerics have "got the message that the future of Iraq depends on us all standing on the same side."

The shift is not likely to cause a wave of Sunni enlistments, said Interior Ministry spokesman Sabah Kadhim. Sunni Muslims, who make up about 20 percent of the Iraqi population, are already well represented in some in the Iraqi armed forces, Kadhim said.

The Sunni religious leaders' decision to recommend a boycott of the January national election was seen as tacit support for the bloody insurgency. Some radical clerics publicly have condoned violence against Americans.

Sixty-four Sunni clerics, including those at two of the country's most influential mosques, signed the edict declaring, "The security of the people and the country is a duty."

They set conditions, however, including an order "not to support occupation forces at the expense of Iraqis."

Although that could exclude them from joint U.S.-Iraqi actions, Kadhim said the most important effect of the edict would be on the civilian population.

"It's the people we're after," he said. The edict will help enlist ordinary people who "are not helping us through (providing) information about terrorists and are harboring terrorists."

In related developments:

• An explosion yesterday in the central city of Samarra blew away part of a wall on top of a minaret from a ninth-century mosque, one of Iraq's most recognized landmarks and featured on Iraq's 250-dinar bill.

Witnesses said two men climbed the 170-foot-tall minaret, then returned to the ground before the blast. The U.S. military blamed insurgents.

It was unclear why the minaret was targeted. U.S. troops have used it as a sniper position, and last year the terrorist group al-Qaida in Iraq, led by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, flew a flag from its peak. Sgt. Brian Thomas, a spokesman for the 42nd Infantry Division, said coalition forces no longer used the minaret.

• Iraqi forces reported killing five insurgents in a gun battle in Samarra and three people, including a child, were reported dead after a bomb exploded near a Sunni mosque in the northern city of Kirkuk.

• The police chief of Balad Ruz, Col. Tatam Rasheed Mohammed, was shot dead early yesterday morning on his way to check on a police station.

Material from The Associated Press

is included in this report.