Sunni bloc quits Iraq govt, truck bomb kills 50

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BAGHDAD, Aug 1 (Reuters): The main Sunni Arab political bloc quit the Iraqi government on Wednesday in a blow to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, while a suicide bomber driving a fuel truck killed 50 people in one of several car bombs in Baghdad.
The Sunni Accordance Front announced its pull-out from Maliki's Shi'ite-led coalition over his failure to meet a list of about a dozen demands, including a greater say in security matters.
The front's 44 members will remain in the 275-seat parliament. Its withdrawal will have little practical effect on the 15-month-old government, which is virtually paralyzed by infighting but needs only a simple majority to keep functioning.
But the shaky coalition is under pressure from the United States and its allies to end sectarian strife between Shi'ites and Sunnis through national reconciliation.
Washington is unhappy at the slow progress towards political benchmarks meant to draw minority Sunni Arabs, dominant under Saddam Hussein, into the political process and away from an insurgency that has killed tens of thousands.
Police said the suicide bomber was driving a fuel truck packed with explosives in the attack in Mansour district of western Baghdad that wounded 60 people apart from the 50 killed.
They said the bomber lured motorists queuing for petrol to his truck after earlier saying he had rammed into the line of vehicles.
Separately, 20 people were killed and 40 wounded when a suicide bomber blew up his vehicle near a popular ice cream parlor in a bustling area full of electronics stores in Baghdad's predominantly Shi'ite district of Karrada.
In southern Baghdad, a parked car bomb killed three people and wounded five in Doura district, police said.
The US military, which began a build-up of 30,000 extra troops this year in a bid to buy time for Maliki to meet his political targets, said three of its soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in the east of the capital Tuesday.
The Accordance Front is made up of three main Sunni groups, including Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi and the head of the bloc, Adnan al-Dulaimi. Its list of demands also included the disbanding of Shi'ite militias.