Portable Planet

Radical Iraqi Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s political movement has ordered its six ministers to withdraw from the ruling coalition.

At a news conference in Baghdad Monday, lawmaker Nassar al-Rubaie said the group was pulling out of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s unity government to press a demand for a timetable for a U.S. troop withdrawal.

Meanwhile, thousands of Iraqis protested Monday in the southern oil city of Basra to demand the resignation of a provincial governor.

Governor Mohammed al-Waeli accuses protest organizers of being a front for his political rivals, including Sadr.

Elsewhere, Iraqi police say 13 Iraqi soldiers were killed in an ambush on their checkpoint near the northern city of Mosul.

The U.S. military says coalition forces killed three Iraqi policemen and wounded another in a case of “friendly fire” during a raid Monday against suspected al-Qaida militants in the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi.

A Multi-National Force statement says coalition forces coordinated their operation before the raid, and no Iraqi police were known to be in the area.

The incident is under investigation.

Source: VOA