Maliki gives up on reconciliation with the largest Sunni bloc

All pretense of reconciliation is gone...

Iraq's Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has given up trying to bring the country's largest Sunni Arab bloc back into his fractured government, officials said on Thursday....

Maliki had pressed the Accordance Front to return to the Cabinet in a letter in early August, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told Reuters.

But after waiting three months for a reply, the government officially removed five of the ministers from their posts last week, Dabbagh said.

The replacement ministers have not yet been publicly named.

Also in Iraq: The US recently handed over security in Karbala to the Iraqis, and now the local police (SIIC dominated) are accusing the Mahdi of a four year killing spree. It's the same split as in Basra, just among the holiest shrines of the Shia faith.