The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Sudan's defense minister, Abdel Raheem Muhammed Hussein.

Hussein is accused of coordinating attacks against villages in Sudan's Darfur region between August 2003 and March 2004.

The ICC prosecutor's office says the attacks followed a pattern in which the villages were surrounded, bombed by the Sudanese air force, then attacked by troops and “janjaweed” militia who killed and raped villagers.

The court issued the warrant Thursday, three months after a request from the office of prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo. Sudan's foreign minister dismissed the prosecutor's move as politically motivated.

The ICC has a separate arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who is also accused of war crimes in Darfur.