A Sunni Arab woman who claims she was raped by three members of the Iraqi police force during the weekend talks to members of the media in Baghdad, Iraq. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered an investigation Monday into the woman's allegations.

Baghdad, Iraq ? Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered an investigation Monday into allegations by a Sunni Arab woman that she was raped by three members of the Shiite-dominated police force after she was detained over the weekend.

A top police official disputed the allegation, which could not be independently verified.

The 20-year-old married woman said the ordeal began when police commandos raided her house early Sunday in the Amil district of western Baghdad while her husband was not home. She said the commandos accused her of cooking for Sunni insurgents and took her to a police garrison where the attack occurred.

“One of them put his hand on my mouth so no one outside the room could hear me,” she said in a videotape taped by Associated Press Television news. “I told them ‘I did not know that an Iraqi could do this to another Iraqi.'”

She said a neighbor alerted U.S. soldiers about the arrest and they released her after the attack.

U.S. spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Garver said he could not confirm any U.S. role in her release but that the military “will support the Iraqi government in its investigation.”

The allegations are potentially explosive at a time of rising tensions between Shiites and Sunnis as the United States begins a security operation to restore order in the capital.

Sunni leaders have been claiming the crackdown has focused on their neighborhoods while leaving some Shiite militia strongholds largely unaffected.

Sunnis routinely accuse the Shiite-dominated security forces of using excessive force against them, including indiscriminate arrests and torture of prisoners.

The victim did not specify that her attackers were Shiites, although they form the majority within the ranks of Baghdad police, especially elite commando units.

Deputy Interior Minister Hussein Ali Kamal said the allegation was unlikely because “something like this could not happen because Iraqi forces are operating with U.S. forces at all times.”

In a statement Monday, the government said al-Maliki, a Shiite, “has ordered that the severest punishment be meted out to everyone that’s involved in the incident.”

The allegations first appeared Monday in a front-page story in the Baghdad newspaper Azzaman and were reported by Al-Jazeera as well as Iraq’s government station later in the day.