Iraq's main Sunni Arab bloc is suspending its participation in Iraq's cabinet because of legal steps being taken against one of its ministers, the head of the bloc, Adnan al-Dulaimi, said today.
The Sunni Accordance Front has six ministers in cabinet and the move is a big blow to Shia Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki at a time when he is trying to push through laws aimed at reconciling Iraq 's warring Shia and Sunni Arab communities.
The bloc suspended its participation in parliament a week ago over the ousting of speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, one of its senior figures.
The latest move effectively removes Sunni Arabs from the cabinet and parliament, leaving Shi'ites and Kurds.
"We have suspended our membership in the cabinet until the government puts an end to procedures being taken against Culture Minister Asaad Kamal Hashemi," Dulaimi said.
"We have told our six ministers not to attend cabinet meetings until the government halts these legal steps."
Iraq 's government spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, earlier this week told Al-Arabiya television that an arrest warrant had been issued for Hashemi in relation to a murder investigation.
However, there has been some confusion about the warrant. Neither police nor court officials have not been able to confirm such a warrant has been issued for Hashemi.
Nevertheless, publicity surrounding the matter has infuriated many Sunni politicians. The legal case concerns the killing of the two sons of another Sunni politician in 2005.
Dulaimi said Hashemi was innocent of any wrongdoing. Hashemi has gone into hiding. Police raided his house this week, detaining a number of bodyguards. They were later released.
In fresh violence, a roadside bomb killed five US soldiers on patrol in Baghdad, the US military said on Friday, bringing this month's death toll for American forces in Iraq to 100, according to icasualties.org, a Web site that tracks military tolls.
The deaths, on Thursday in an apparently coordinated ambush that included small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenade attacks, underscore the cost to soldiers fighting a war that is increasingly unpopular in the United States.
Seven other U.S. soldiers were wounded, the military said.
June's death toll is lower than the 126 US soldiers who died in May. But after 104 were killed in April, it is now the bloodiest quarter for US forces since the US-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein in 2003.
US President George W. Bush pleaded for patience for his Iraq strategy on Thursday as he scrambled to prevent further defections by fellow Republicans sceptical of his war strategy.
Bush has sent 28,000 extra troops mainly to Baghdad to improve security and win breathing space for Maliki to win a political accommodation with disaffected minority Sunni Arabs, who are locked in a cycle of bloodshed with majority Shi'ites.