BAGHDAD, April 15: The political bloc of firebrand cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said on Sunday that it is quitting the Iraqi government, as a wave of bombings left another 43 people dead in Baghdad.

“We will announce our withdrawal from the government tomorrow,” Saleh Hassan Issa al-Igaili, a lawmaker from the Sadr group, told AFP.

He said the move was to press the group’s demand for a timetabled exit of US-led foreign troops. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and his ally US President George W. Bush have steadfastly refused to set a time-line for the withdrawal.

The Sadr group has six cabinet ministers in Maliki’s embattled government and 32 lawmakers in the 275-member Iraqi parliament.

Maliki last week during a trip of Tokyo rejected demands by the US Congress for a timetable to pull out American troops, saying any withdrawal should be based on the situation on the ground.

His remarks angered the Sadr group, which on Wednesday gave its first indication it was preparing to walk out of government.

Igaili on Sunday clarified that the withdrawal, which will be formally announced on Monday, was only from the cabinet and that the political bloc will continue to participate in the assembly.

Sadr, a known anti-American cleric, has strongly opposed the US presence in his country since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. The boycott will not trigger a collapse of Maliki’s government but is expected to increase pressure on the premier at a time when he is busy overseeing a security crackdown in Baghdad to quell raging sectarian bloodshed.

The Sadr group boycotted the Iraqi government for two months from November 29 until late January in protest at a meeting between the beleaguered Maliki and US President George W. Bush in Jordan.

The US military which fought two bloody rebellions launched by Sadr against its forces in 2004 accuses his militia of being involved in sectarian killings of Sunni Arabs. The Baghdad security crackdown largely aims to rein in his militia which has melted away since the launch of the plan in February.—AFP