By Megan Greenwell
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 1, 2007; 11:52 AM
BAGHDAD, Aug. 1 -- Iraq's largest Sunni political group formally withdrew from Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government Wednesday, dealing a major blow to Maliki's efforts to build a cohesive government.
The Accordance Front announced that will vacate its six seats in Maliki's cabinet after the prime minister and other leading government officials failed to make progress on a list of demands the group issued last week. Accordance Front members said their decision came after Maliki failed to show a commitment to solving the problems of ordinary Iraqi people.
"The government is continuing with its arrogance, refusing to change its stand and slamming shut the door to any meaningful reforms necessary to save Iraq," said senior Accordance Front member Rafaa al-Issawi.
The announcement represents a setback not just for Maliki, but for President Bush, who is expecting a progress report from the top U.S. military commander in Iraq on Sept. 15. The discord within the government and the lack of legislative progress in parliament could undermine his assessment of conditions in Iraq and further decrease congressional support for the war.
The Accordance Front had demanded the release of thousands of detainees it says are unjustly imprisoned, the removal of all militia members from the Iraqi police force and the return of displaced families to their homes. The Sunnis also sought a greater role in security matters and further investigation into mass kidnappings and bombings of Sunni shrines.
Issawi said the group's demands will remain on the table and that its 44 parliament members will not withdraw. "The Front will remain active in the political process with the hope of reforming it and correcting its path in order to get rid of the appearances and the reasons behind the sectarian split," he said.
The announcement came on a violent day in Baghdad, as two car bomb attacks killed at least 70 people, police said. A fuel tanker exploded in the volatile western neighborhood of Mansour, killed at least 50 people and wounding 60 others. Meanwhile, a car bomb in Karrada, in central Baghdad, killed at least 20 people and injured 32 others, police said.
The attack in Karrada was at least the eighth such blast in that neighborhood in the past month. Although the busy shopping district was once considered one of Baghdad's safest areas, it has seen a dramatic increase in violence in the past several weeks.
Also Wednesday, the U.S. military announced that four American troops had been killed in two incidents on Tuesday. That brought the total number of U.S. deaths in July to 76, the lowest number since November 2006, according to icasualties.org.
Special correspondent Saad al-Izzi contributed to this report