Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his followers to withdraw from Iraq's government on Monday, the head of his parliamentary bloc said. Al-Sadr's move could leave Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's administration without enough support to stay in power.
The pullout by the al-Sadr faction, which provided the crucial votes that put al-Maliki in office, could collapse his already shaky regime. Al-Sadr's six men on the 37-seat Cabinet officially withdrew from the government Monday, said Saleh al-Aujaili and Hassan al-Rubaie, members of the Sadrist bloc in parliament. They said al-Sadr's 30 legislators would stay in parliament.
According to the AP, the officials said al-Sadr ordered the Cabinet ministers to quit in protest over the arrests of leaders in his Shiite militia during the Baghdad crackdown and for the prime minister's failure to set a timetable for U.S. withdrawal.
Meanwhile, at least 13 Iraqi troops died Monday when gunmen ambushed their military checkpoint near the northern city of Mosul, police said. Another four soldiers were hurt in the attack, said police Brig. Saeed Ahmed al-Jibouri, director of Ninevah police.
The ambush occurred around 10 a.m. in the al-Abdaiyah area of Mosul, he said.
Earlier, the U.S. military command announced the combat deaths of three more Americans. One U.S. Army soldier died by small arms fire Sunday while trying to reach an Iraqi police unit under attack near a mosque in southern Baghdad, the military said in a statement, cited by the AP. One civilian was wounded in the incident.
Another soldier died Saturday when a roadside bomb went off alongside a foot patrol south of Baghdad, the military said. A Marine died the same day in combat in Anbar province, west of the capital.
A third soldier died from non-combat related causes Saturday while on leave in Qatar, the military said.
