US and Iraqi forces said they killed about 17 guerrillas in a battle north of Baghdad early on Sunday, after President George W. Bush promised Iraq's prime minister more military aid in a bid to soothe recent friction.
"There are no strains in the relationship," White House spokesman Tony Snow said after Bush and Nuri al-Maliki spoke for nearly an hour on Saturday. It ended a week of public skirmishes that have raised questions over Bush's exit strategy from Iraq ahead of tight congressional elections on November 7. "The president is very happy ... with the way the prime minister is working," Snow said.
Maliki's aides say he is furious at American pressure on him, and he and fellow Shia leaders are concerned at what they see as a rapprochement between Washington and the long rebellious Sunni minority dominant under Saddam Hussein.
In a reminder of the sectarian violence, Interior Ministry sources said Baghdad police found 25 bodies, most victims of torture by death squads, in the past day.
One of Maliki's bodyguards was also wounded in an attack on the government car he was driving in Baghdad on Saturday. Along with the reported deaths of more than 20 other people, including a woman sports presenter from Iraqi state television, it was typical of bloodshed that Bush has said is trying US patience.
He has vowed to stand by the Iraqi government - but only as long as it makes "tough decisions", including clamping down on Shia militias loyal to rival political leaders. Some analysts see White House criticism of Iraqi leaders as preparing the ground for a US troop withdrawal plan, once voting is over.
"We are committed to the partnership our two countries and two governments have formed," Bush and Maliki said in a joint statement after their talks. Bush said last week, however, he would not leave his troops in the crossfire of a civil war.
Maliki's office said Bush promised more help for the Iraqi forces. The prime minister told Reuters last week he could bring order in six months, half the time US generals estimate, if troops were better trained and armed. He blamed US policy for the turmoil and demanded more power to command his own forces.
AMBUSHES:
No American soldiers were hurt in the overnight battle near Balad, 80 km (50 miles) north of the capital, the US military said in a statement which described air strikes on militants preparing two separate ambushes for ground forces on the move.
So far, 99 US troops have died in Iraq in October, the bloodiest month in nearly two years. It raises the possibility of the monthly toll hitting 100, a week before voting in which polls suggest Bush's Republicans could lose control of Congress.
Aircraft from the US-led Coalition attacked two groups of rebels, armed with rocket-propelled grenades and machineguns as they lay in ambush, the military said. On Saturday, three Iraqi soldiers were killed and four wounded near Balad, police said.
"Coalition aircraft thwarted two separate terrorist ambushes as ground forces moved toward their objective," the military said. Four rebels died in one attack and about 13 in the other. Police in the nearby town of Dhuluiya said 11 were killed in an air strike overnight between their base and Balad.
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