Suicide truck blast kills 28, mostly children, in northern Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A suicide bomber drove an explosives-laden truck into a village near the northern Iraqi city of Tal Afar on Monday, killing at least 28 people and wounding 50 others, an Iraqi army official said.

At least 19 of those killed were children, Tal Afar Mayor Najim Abdullah al-Jabouri said.

The blast left a 10-foot crater in the ground and damaged 10 homes in the Shiite Turkmen village of Qubbak, about six miles (10 kilometers) northeast of Tal Afar, the army official told CNN.

In Baghdad, three roadside bombs detonated in various neighborhoods, killing at least 11 people and wounding 33 others, according to the Iraqi Interior Ministry. See a map of where the bombing happened »

The deadliest of the blasts came in southeast Baghdad's Zafaraniya district, where eight people were killed and 16 were wounded.

Another bomb in the Ghadir neighborhood of southeastern Baghdad killed three people and wounded 11 others.

Political turmoil

Meanwhile, Cabinet ministers from the political party led by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi boycotted a government meeting Monday, in the latest challenge to current Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's year-old coalition.

Iyad Jamal al-Deen, a member of parliament from Allawi's Iraqi National List, said the party's four ministers have not resigned from the government, as six members of the leading Sunni Arab party did last week.

But he said al-Maliki's government has yet to meet the demands Allawi's party made in February, including the passage of legislation that would allow former members of executed dictator Saddam Hussein's Baath Party to return to public life and other measures considered key to national reconciliation.

Allawi's list, composed of secular politicians from both the Sunni and Shiite communities, holds 25 seats in the 275-member Council of Representatives, Iraq's parliament.

It held five seats in al-Maliki's Shiite-dominated Cabinet when it took office, but Justice Minister Hashem al-Shibli resigned in March after complaining that sectarian and regional divisions were paralyzing the government.

The party still holds the state, communications, human rights and science and technology portfolios.

The boycott follows last Wednesday's withdrawal of the country's largest Sunni bloc, the Iraqi Accord Front, from al-Maliki's government. The group held six seats in the 39-member Cabinet, including a deputy prime minister's post.

The Sunni bloc has been critical of legislative stalemates and the government's failure to pass national reconciliation bills. In announcing its withdrawal, it said the "arrogance" of al-Maliki's government has prevented any meaningful reforms that could bring about a political settlement of the country's four-year insurgency and widespread sectarian warfare.

The Sunni bloc's departure was the second political walkout from the al-Maliki government. Six Cabinet ministers from the bloc of anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr left the government earlier this year.

Al-Maliki has appointed acting ministers to replace al-Sadr's followers, but has not yet appointed replacements for the Sunni ministers. The country's top Sunni politician, Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, is staying in his post for the time being, and has told President Bush that he would keep his party engaged in the political process, his office said.

Other developments

• An explosion in Diyala province killed four U.S. soldiers and wounded 12 others Monday, the U.S. military said. The soldiers were part of the Army's Task Force Lightning, which has been battling insurgents around the provincial capital Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, since June. Another soldier died in Baghdad when a sophisticated roadside bomb known as an explosively formed penetrator hit his vehicle during combat on the city's west side, the U.S. command in Baghdad said. Monday's deaths bring the U.S. toll in Iraq to 3,668 since the March 2003. Seven Department of Defense contractors have also been killed.

• Iraq security forces found the bodies of five Iraqi soldiers Monday in the town of Sharqat, about 70 miles (113 kilometers) north of Tikrit, police said. The soldiers, dressed in civilian clothes, were on leave from a base in Mosul and were heading to Baghdad in a private car.

• Mortar rounds landed in the Sunni town of Dhuluiya on Monday, killing six people and wounding 16 others, police said. Dhuluiya is about 55 miles (90 kilometers) north of Baghdad.

• U.S. and Iranian diplomats held a third round of security talks Monday morning at al-Maliki's office in central Baghdad, an official with al-Maliki's office said. The U.S. and Iran have had no formal relations since 1980, but Iraq has twice hosted meetings between Ryan Crocker, U.S. ambassador to Iraq, and Hassan Kazemi Qomi, Iranian ambassador to Iraq, to discuss security issues in the war-ravaged nation. E-mail to a friend

CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.

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