Boycott of Iraqi Cabinet grows

BAGHDAD —  At least four more ministers announced a boycott of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki’s beleaguered government Monday, deepening the crisis sparked less than a week ago by the withdrawal of six Sunni Muslim Cabinet members.

Almost half the members of Maliki’s Cabinet -- 17 ministers -- have withdrawn or boycotted, citing the prime minister’s unwillingness to include them in major decisions or to meet demands to curb Shiite Muslim militias and release Sunni Arab prisoners held without charges.

Meanwhile, five U.S. soldiers were killed Monday, four in an explosion in Diyala province and one when an armor-penetrating device exploded in west Baghdad. Another soldier was killed Sunday in east Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

The deaths brought to 3,677 the number of American troops killed since the March 2003 invasion, according to the website icasualties.org, which tracks casualties in the conflict.

The ministers who announced the walkout are secular Sunnis with the Iraqi National List coalition, the fourth-largest in parliament. The coalition is led by former interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, a secular Shiite and former exile who has opposed Maliki’s government. They announced the boycott after skipping a ministers’ meeting Monday morning. The Cabinet still had 21 of 38 members, giving it a quorum to meet and vote, a spokesman for the prime minister said.

The Iraqi National List ministers are protesting Maliki’s “policy of marginalization,” said Salim Abdullah Jabouri, a member of parliament with the Iraqi Accordance Front, or Tawafiq, which withdrew its ministers Wednesday.

Tawafiq cited the same unmet demands noted in Monday’s boycott.

The bloc loyal to Shiite leader Muqtada Sadr withdrew its six ministers from the Cabinet in April after leaders failed to present a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq.

Jabouri said that the next few weeks would be Maliki’s “last chance to show goodwill” and negotiate with the absent ministers. Maliki is expected to attend a leadership summit soon that will include national leaders and heads of political blocs.

If Maliki fails to reach out to the marginalized ministers, Jabouri said, Tawafiq will continue talks with the Iraqi National List and Kurdish and Shiite politicians in Maliki’s own bloc to bring a vote of no confidence against him.

But Maliki does not plan to negotiate with ministers who have left the Cabinet, spokesman Basam Ridha said. Instead, Maliki was talking Monday about replacing the absent ministers through special elections.

“Obviously it’s a concern” that the ministers withdrew and boycotted the Cabinet, Ridha said. “But maybe we don’t need a minister with a party that’s going to withdraw. Maybe this will give the prime minister a chance to find elected members who will do their job,” he said.

“If they do not wish to serve, no problem: We will find somebody else to replace them. He’s got quite a few resumes from across the country.”

Also Monday, U.S., Iranian and Iraqi officials gathered in Baghdad for the first meeting of a technical subcommittee on improving security in Iraq.

The meeting, sponsored by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, took place as the United States is accusing Iran of providing an increasing number of sophisticated weapons and stepping up training and other support for Shiite militias responsible for attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq. Iranian officials blame the continued U.S. presence in Iraq for the violence.

The American delegation was headed by the U.S. Embassy’s minister-councilor for political and military affairs, Marcie Ries. Iran was represented by Ambassador Hassan Kazemi-Qomi, according to a statement from Talabani’s office.

U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker later continued security discussions with his Iranian counterpart and Iraqi national security advisor Mowaffak Rubaie, U.S. Embassy spokesman Lou Fintor said.

Fintor characterized the meeting as “frank and serious.” He said the three sides had agreed to meet again.

Maliki left Iraq on Monday for a visit to Turkey and Iran.

Meanwhile, at least 35 people were killed, including 15 children, when a suicide attacker blew up an explosives-laden truck Monday on the eastern outskirts of the city of Tall Afar, 240 miles northwest of Baghdad, officials said.

It was not immediately clear why so many children were among the victims of the blast, which also injured at least 50 people.

The force of the explosion collapsed numerous homes in the densely populated area that is home to Shiites and Turkmens, said Tall Afar Mayor Najim Abdullah Jubouri. He estimated that the truck was packed with about 2 tons of explosives, concealed by gravel.

He said many women and children were killed because they could not escape the collapsing buildings.

No group had claimed responsibility for the bombing late Monday, but Jubouri said he suspected insurgents who wanted to kill Shiites. He said the explosion killed Sunnis and Shiites, Arabs and Kurds.

Many of the homes were fragile mud structures, and officials said the toll might climb.

“The explosion was very strong and shook the whole area,” said Zainilabideen Hasan, who was standing at the entrance to his grocery store when the blast occurred. One of his legs was trapped under debris.

Hasan said he was moving around the hospital in a wheelchair, desperately trying to find two women who had been inside his shop at the time of the attack.

“I don’t know what happened to them. I feel a great pain about what happened,” he said, bursting into sobs and hanging up the phone.

A similar bombing in Tall Afar in March, which killed more than 80 people, triggered a killing rampage by off-duty Shiite police officers that left 70 Sunni Arabs dead.

In other violence Monday, a roadside bomb exploded at the foot of Diyala Bridge, a span linking two Shiite neighborhoods in east Baghdad. At least nine people were killed and eight injured, police said.

Another bomb in a Christian enclave in east Baghdad killed two people and injured nine, police said.

Gunmen also detonated a bomb behind a downtown bank in an apparent attempt to rob the facility. The bank’s guards clashed with the gunmen until U.S. forces arrived to help secure the scene, the police said. At least one person was reported killed and five injured in the incident.

Police found 17 bodies around the capital.

Police in Baqubah reported the discovery of 60 decomposing bodies buried on the northwestern outskirts of the city in strife-torn Diyala province.

U.S. forces came across the mass grave Sunday as they were burning reeds to prevent insurgents from using the area as a hiding place, police said.

U.S. forces Sunday also captured the chief of an Iraqi rapid-response force who has been accused of complicity with death squads in Khalis, north of Baqubah, the police said.

Farther north, police recovered the bodies of two men along a highway southwest of Kirkuk. The victims, who were among three people reported kidnapped recently, had their hands and feet tied and had been shot, police said. The bodies also showed signs of torture. There was no immediate word on the fate of the third person.

molly.hennesy-fiske@latimes.com

alexandra.zavis@latimes.com

Special correspondent Ruaa al-Zarary in Mosul and special correspondents in Baghdad contributed to this report.