Iraq:The political movement of Shia cleric and militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr said yesterday it would withdraw from the government today to press its demand for a timetable for a US troop withdrawal.
Officials from the movement, which holds six ministries and a quarter of the parliamentary seats in prime minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shia Alliance, said the formal announcement would be made today. The move is unlikely to bring down the government, but it could create tensions in Maliki's fractious, Shia-led government of national unity at a time when it is trying to heal deep sectarian divisions.
Mr al-Sadr's Mehdi Army militia, which is regarded by the Pentagon as the greatest threat to peace in Iraq, has so far kept a low profile during the crackdown in Baghdad, reportedly on his orders. Despite the two-month-old offensive, which is seen as a last-ditch attempt to stop Iraq sliding into all-out civil war, violence continued to rage yesterday in Baghdad.
Up to 34 people were killed and 100 wounded by bombs in mainly Shia districts, police said, and two British military personnel died when two helicopters crashed north of the city. Four more people were injured when the Puma transport helicopters crashed near a US air base in Taji, 20km from Baghdad, British officials said. The helicopters may have collided in mid-air, the US military said. The crash brought the British death toll in Iraq to 142. Eight have been killed this month alone.
Two car bombs earlier yesterday killed 15 people and wounded 50 more in southwest Baghdad. The first was detonated in a market, followed seconds later by another at a nearby intersection, police said.
In Karrada in central Baghdad, two roadside bombs at nightfall killed eight people and wounded 23, including three policemen, police said. The second bomb went off as people were gathering around the site of the first explosion. Also in Karrada, a car bomb aimed at a police patrol earlier killed five people and wounded another 10. In the Kadhimiya district in the northwest of the capital, a police source said a suicide bomber wearing a belt packed with explosives killed six people and wounded 11 in a small bus.
- (Reuters)