Reuters : Iraq PM bristles as tensions grow with U.S

Iraq PM bristles as tensions grow with U.S

By Paul Tait and Mohammad Zargham | August 22, 2007

BAGHDAD/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki reacted sharply on Wednesday to U.S. criticism of his government's slow progress toward reconciliation, and U.S. President George W. Bush, after earlier lukewarm comments, restated his support for Maliki.

U.S. officials this week voiced increasing frustration with Maliki's failure to advance political reform despite an increase in the number of U.S. troops to give breathing room to his fractured Shi'ite-led coalition.

Bush, speaking to reporters in Canada on Tuesday, noted "a certain level of frustration with the leadership" and failed to offer a direct endorsement of Maliki. Earlier in the day, U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, said the Maliki government's progress toward reconciliation was "extremely disappointing."

Maliki hit back during a visit to Damascus, saying no one outside Iraq had the right to set timetables for progress.

On Wednesday, Bush said in a speech in Kansas City, Missouri, "Prime Minister Maliki is a good guy, a good man, with a difficult job and I support him."

As the diplomatic heat rose, violence in Iraq continued. A suicide bomber killed 25 people, including 15 policemen, and wounded 73 in an attack on a police headquarters in Baiji. Fourteen U.S. soldiers were killed in a helicopter crash in northern Iraq blamed on mechanical failure, the worst incident of its kind since January 2005.

The Bush administration is pushing for reconciliation between Iraq's warring Shi'ite Muslim majority and minority Sunni Muslim Arabs so it can start bringing troops home from an unpopular war. Crocker and the commander of the U.S. forces in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, are due to deliver a progress report next month that could signal a change in U.S. policy in Iraq.

Maliki's response to the criticism was blunt. "The Iraqi government was elected by the Iraqi people," he told reporters in the Syrian capital.

"Maybe this person who made a statement yesterday is upset by the nature of our visit to Syria," Maliki said, without making clear if he was referring to Bush or Crocker.

"These statements do not concern us a lot," Maliki said. "We will find many around the world who will support us in our endeavour."

Iraq and the United States accuse Syria of not doing enough to stop the flow of foreign fighters into Iraq through its porous borders.

INCREASED ATTACKS EXPECTED

The U.S. military has launched a nationwide offensive targeting Sunni Islamist al Qaeda fighters and Shi'ite militias to thwart an expected increase in attacks ahead of the report to Congress, expected on September 11 or 12.

Washington has set Maliki's government a series of benchmarks, including a revenue-sharing oil law, which it sees as key to ending the sectarian conflict that has killed tens of thousands of Iraqis.

Reporting the helicopter crash, a U.S. military statement said initial indications suggested the Black Hawk, one of two involved in night operations, had suffered mechanical failure. It was the second incident of its kind in eight days.

"There were no indications of hostile fire," it said.

"That helicopter had been carrying four crew members and 10 passengers." The exact location of the crash was not immediately clear.

The deaths take to 3,721 the number of U.S. military killed in Iraq since the 2003 invasion to topple Saddam Hussein, including 63 this month.

The latest crash was the worst since January 2005, when 31 service personnel were killed when a Marine transport helicopter was downed.

In Baiji, police had just moved into new headquarters, situated among shops and houses, after a similar attack on their old building in June killed 27 people, including 13 policemen.

Abdul Rahman Mahmoud, a 22-year-old college student, said many of the victims were from a local Education Ministry office next door to the police directorate.

Other witnesses said part of the police building had collapsed and victims were trapped in the rubble. Police fired their weapons into the air to disperse crowds as wounded were piled into cars and rushed to hospital.

Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Karim Khalaf said Iraqi security forces had killed 56 suspected al Qaeda members during an operation in Fadhil, a notorious insurgency stronghold in central Baghdad, on Tuesday.

Fadhil residents said there had been intermittent fighting between al Qaeda and other Sunni Arab militant groups over the past two days. One resident said he had seen four bodies and many wounded being taken away in ambulances.

(Additional reporting by Damascus bureau and Aseel Kami, Ross Colvin in Baghdad, and Caren Bohan in Kansas City)

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