The movement of the Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has withdrawn from the Iraqi government to press its demand for a withdrawal of U.S. troops. The Sadr movement controls six Cabinet posts and a quarter of the parliamentary seats in Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Shiite Alliance. The pullout follows one of Iraq’s bloodiest weekends in months. McClatchy newspapers is reporting nearly 300 people were killed in violence around Iraq Saturday. Thirty-six died in a car bomb attack in Karbala. The explosion tore through a busy marketplace, leaving scores of bodies and wounding more than 160 people.