Key Sunni Bloc Deserts Maliki

Defection deepens political crisis as suicide bombs kill 70
By Heather McPherson,  Newser User
Posted Aug 1, 2007 3:01 PM CDT
Key Sunni Bloc Deserts Maliki
Firemen extinguish a fuel tanker that exploded near a gas station in the primarily Sunni Mansour neighborhood of western Baghdad, Iraq, killing at least 50 people and wounding 60, on Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2007. Police said the explosion was the work of a suicide attacker. (AP Photo/Asaad Mouhsin)   (Associated Press)

The Sunni Accordance Front defected from Iraq's government today, accusing PM Nuri al-Maliki of being uncooperative, Reuters reports, on a day when suicide bombs killed more than 70 in Baghdad. "This is probably the most serious political crisis we have faced since the passage of the constitution,'' a deputy PM said of the troubled government.

Five cabinet members and a deputy PM are quitting, though their departure may have little practical impact on the Shi'ite-dominated government, which hailed the inclusion of a Sunni faction as a major step toward unity. On the capital's streets, a car bomb killed 50 at a gas station, with another 20 dying at an ice-cream shop. (More Nouri al-Maliki stories.)

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