Sunni Arab bloc quits Iraqi government, as 142 Iraqis die in attacks nationwide

BAGHDAD -- The city streets were already an inferno of Mesopotamian summer heat when the suicide bomber drove up in a gasoline tanker truck. The explosion and flames quickly incinerated cars and drivers waiting to fill up at a gas station. At least 50 people died.

Before the end of Wednesday, at least 142 Iraqis had been killed or found dead, a toll more akin to the period before 30,000 additional American troops arrived to put a clamp on violence in the capital and surrounding regions.

The political heat also was intense.

The most powerful Sunni political bloc, the Iraqi Accordance Front, carried through on a threat to pull its six Cabinet ministers out of the government. Its withdrawal leaves only two Sunnis in the 40-member Cabinet, undermining Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's efforts to pull together rival factions and pass reconciliation laws the U.S. considers benchmarks that could lead to sectarian reconciliation.

The U.S. military announced the deaths of four more American soldiers, including three killed in Baghdad on Tuesday by a powerful armor-piercing bomb. Washington says these types of bombs are sent from Iran. The fourth soldier was killed by small arms fire on the same day. A British soldier also was killed Tuesday in a roadside bombing.

The American military announced it found a mass grave in Diyala province northeast of the capital that contained 17 bodies of mostly Sunnis, including women, children and elderly people. The military said they were victims of al-Qaida in Iraq, but offered no substantiation.

Wednesday's death toll included 70 people killed in three separate bombings in Baghdad. The violence came after July ended as the second-deadliest month for Iraqis so far this year, but with the lowest U.S. death toll in eight months.

Washington has been pushing al-Maliki's government to pass key laws -- among them, measures to share national oil revenues and incorporate some ousted Baathists into mainstream politics. But the Sunni ministers' resignation from the Cabinet -- not the parliament -- foreshadowed even greater difficulty in building consensus when lawmakers return after a monthlong summer recess.

President Bush prodded al-Maliki to unite rival factions and show some overdue political progress, the White House said.

The two leaders spoke for 45 minutes in a secure video conference, part of a regular series of conversations on the war and Iraq's struggling democracy.

"The president emphasized that the Iraqi people and the American people need to see action -- not just words -- but need to see action on the political front," White House press secretary Tony Snow said. "The prime minister agreed."

Rafaa al-Issawi, a leading member of the Front, said the decision to pull out of government was sealed by what he called al-Maliki's failure to respond to a set of demands put forward by the Accordance Front last week. At the time, the Sunni bloc gave the prime minister seven days to meet its demands -- an ultimatum that expired Wednesday.

Among the demands: the release of security detainees not charged with specific crimes, the disbanding of militias and the participation of all groups represented in the government in dealing with security issues.

"The government is continuing with its arrogance, refusing to change its stand and has slammed shut the door to any meaningful reforms necessary for saving Iraq," al-Issawi said at a news conference in Baghdad.

"We had hoped that the government would respond to these demands or at least acknowledge the failure of its policies, which led Iraq to a level of misery it had not seen in modern history. But its stand did not surprise us at all," he said, reading from a prepared statement.

The Accordance Front has 44 of parliament's 275 seats, and those politicians will continue in the legislature. Its withdrawal of its Cabinet ministers from the 14-month-old government is the second such action by a faction of al-Maliki's coalition.

Five Cabinet ministers loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr quit the government in April to protest al-Maliki's refusal to announce a timetable for the pullout of U.S. forces from Iraq.

Al-Maliki's office expressed regret over Wednesday's withdrawal and said it was open to communicating with the Accordance Front and other parties. But it did not address the Front's grievances or al-Maliki's apparent refusal to consider them.

"Our goal has been always the continuation of the active political participation and that everybody shoulders his responsibility in running the country and making the decisions," the government said in a statement. "We will maintain contacts with all blocs, including the Accordance Front."

Earlier, the Front's leader, Adnan al-Dulaimi, said its members would remain in the legislature.

"Withdrawing from the government doesn't mean that we will abandon the whole political process. We will continue our participation ... through the parliament and we will contact other parliamentary blocs to achieve our demands," al-Dulaimi told The Associated Press.

Wednesday's deadliest attack occurred when the fuel tanker was exploded near a gas station in western Baghdad's primarily Sunni Mansour neighborhood. At least 50 people died and 60 were wounded, police said. Two police officers, both speaking on condition of anonymity out of security concerns, said the explosion was the work of a suicide attacker.

Earlier, a parked car bomb killed 17 civilians and left a gaping, one-yard-deep crater in a busy square in central Baghdad, police said. At least 32 people were wounded by the blast, which shattered windows at a popular ice cream parlor. Blood was pooled on the street.

Thamir Sami, 33, was carrying clothes from his menswear shop out to his car when the explosion shook the area.

"Women and children were lining up near the gas station to get fuel," he said. "I saw burnt bodies. Other motorists and I helped evacuate the wounded before the ambulances came."