Baghdad -- At least four more ministers announced a boycott of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's beleaguered government yesterday, deepening the crisis sparked less than a week ago by the withdrawal of six Sunni Muslim Cabinet members.
Almost half of al-Maliki's Cabinet - 17 ministers - have withdrawn or boycotted, citing the prime minister's unwillingness to include them in major decisions or make concessions to meet demands to curb Shiite Muslim militias and release Sunni prisoners held without charges.
Meanwhile, five U.S. soldiers were killed yesterday: four in an explosion in Diyala Province, and one when an armor-penetrating device exploded in western Baghdad. Another soldier was killed Sunday in eastern Baghdad, the U.S. military said.
The deaths brought to 3,674 the number of American troops killed since the March 2003 invasion, according to an Associated Press count.
The ministers who announced the walkout are secular Sunnis from the Iraqi National List slate, the fourth-largest in parliament. The slate is led by former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, a secular Shiite and former exile who has opposed al-Maliki's government. They announced the boycott after skipping a ministers' meeting yesterday morning. The Cabinet still had 21 of 37 members, giving it a quorum to meet and vote, a spokesman for the prime minister said.
The Iraqi National List ministers are protesting al-Maliki's "policy of marginalization," according to Saleem Abdullah Juboori, a member of parliament with the Sunni National Accordance Front, or Tawafiq, which withdrew its ministers on Wednesday. Tawafiq cited the same unmet demands noted in Monday's boycott.
The bloc loyal to Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr withdrew its six ministers from the cabinet in April after leaders failed to present a timetable for U.S. forces' withdrawal from Iraq.
Juboori said the next few weeks will be al-Maliki's "last chance to show goodwill" and negotiate with the absent ministers. He is expected to attend a leadership summit soon that will include national leaders and heads of political blocs.
If al-Maliki fails to reach out to the marginalized ministers, Juboori said, Tawafiq is already in talks with Iraqiya, Kurdish and Shiite politicians from al-Maliki's own bloc to bring a vote of no confidence against him.
But al-Maliki does not plan to negotiate with ministers who have left the Cabinet, spokesman Basam Ridha said. Instead, al-Maliki was talking yesterday with the Iraqi National Accord about replacing the absent ministers through special elections.
