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Al-Maliki's claim sought to address doubts about his willingness to take on the Shiite militiamen, especially the Mahdi Army loyal to his key supporter, the radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Al-Sadr's militiamen are believed responsible for much of the sectarian violence in Baghdad in the past year. Bombers and gunmen killed at least 23 people in a series of attacks as violence surged in Baghdad ahead of a planned U.S.-Iraqi security crackdown. President Bush, announcing a new Iraq strategy last week, said a crackdown on militias was key to its success and added that al-Maliki had given a "green light" to Iraqi and U.S. forces to battle those militias without sectarian interference. Yassin Majid, a senior al-Maliki adviser, confirmed that al-Maliki had told several newspapers in an interview Wednesday that 400 fighters from the Mahdi Army have been arrested. But he said there were not large numbers of senior militia leaders among them. A Baghdad Mahdi Army commander said U.S. and Iraqi troops launched a major campaign Tuesday in Um al-Maalef, a Shiite neighborhood in south Baghdad. "They detained every man who was able to carry weapons. We heard from our people in the area that about 400 people were detained," said the militia commander who spoke on condition of anonymity because senior figures in the group are not permitted to give their names. He said that in December, U.S. troops had killed one of the Mahdi Army's top commanders, known as Abu al-Sudour, in Sadr City. The Italian daily Corriere della Sera reported Thursday that al-Maliki was deeply critical of Bush during a briefing with reporters. But the prime minister's office denied he had criticized the administration. "The situation would be much better if the United States had immediately sent our security forces more adequate weapons and equipment. If they had committed themselves more and with greater speed, we would have had a lot fewer deaths among Iraqi civilians and American soldiers," the newspaper quoted al-Maliki as saying. However, the report said the premier stopped short of openly criticizing Bush's plan to send 21,500 more troops to join the estimated 130,000 already there. "We have to see how the situation in the field will go," he was quoted as saying. "We cannot rule out that the situation will drastically improve, allowing U.S. troops to leave the country in great numbers in three to six months." The newspaper reported that the embattled Iraqi leader said Bush capitulated to domestic pressure when he criticized the hanging of former leader Saddam Hussein. It said al-Maliki also struck back at Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for suggesting he was in a weak position and on borrowed time. He reportedly said such remarks were giving aid and comfort to militants fighting to drive out U.S. troops and unseat his government. However, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh dismissed the reported criticism of the Bush government. "The news circulated by the media about the Iraqi prime minister's declaration regarding relations with American administration are baseless," he said, according to Iraqi state television. Al-Dabbagh also told a news conference the Iraqi military budget this year is $8 billion, but it needs more for proper training, recruiting and equipment. "We feel Iraqi needs for equipment (are) more than that money," he said, speaking in English. "We are expecting also assistance and help from the multinational forces in order to have proper training and manning as well as arming the Iraqi force." The White House played down reports that al-Maliki had criticized Bush and other officials for recent comments about the Iraqi government. Spokesman Tony Snow said al-Maliki is showing he is serious about taking full responsibility for security in his country. "The prime minister has made this point a number of times," Snow said. "He wants to make sure that his forces are fully armed and capable, and we agree with him." Al-Dabbagh also said coalition troops could start withdrawing from Iraq by the end of the year as more security control is handed over to the Iraqis. He said control of security responsibilities would be transferred to Iraqis in such volatile provinces as Baghdad, Anbar and Diyala by the second half of next year and that would enable them "to reduce the multinational forces." U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said in an interview with USA Today that it will take the Iraqis several months to resolve long-standing political disputes, a step he described as critical to the success of Bush's new security strategy. He said it would take some time to draft a new oil law laying out how wealth would be distributed among different regions, amend the constitution and pass a new law easing a ban on former members of Saddam's Baath Party, most of them Sunnis, from holding government jobs. Al-Dabbagh also said a U.N. figure released Tuesday that said nearly 35,000 Iraqi civilians were killed last year did not "reflect the reality on the ground," although he stopped short of disputing it. He said the Iraqis were compiling their own figures. "Unfortunately we don't have a proper estimation for the number of casualties, due to the security problem and due to the many bodies being found and the situation in Iraq," he said. "We are trying to ... get the proper estimation of the casualties." A Health Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to disclose the information, said 16,000 bodies of victims of violence had been brought to the Baghdad morgue alone in 2006 and it appeared that the U.N. figure was "about correct." In the deadliest attack Thursday, three car bombs detonated within minutes of each other in front of a wholesale vegetable market near a Shiite enclave on the edge of the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Dora in southern Baghdad, killing 10 people and wounding 30, police said. The 10:20 a.m. blast blew off part of the metal roof of a loading area. A burned-out van still had its bundle of lettuce and onions tied to the top. AP Television News video also showed the charred hulk of a car wedged under a truck. Lettuce and bloodstained clothes were scattered on the ground. The al-Rashid market is located near Dora's Abu Dishir area on the highway that links the capital with the Iraq's southern areas. Most of the shop owners and workers were Shiites from Abu Dishir, although some Sunni vendors also use the market. About an hour later, a parked car bomb also struck a religiously mixed commercial area on a busy Baghdad street, killing four people and wounding 10 others. The blast burned many cars and shattered nearby windows. Earlier, a car bomb blew up as an Iraqi police patrol passed in a volatile area of central Baghdad, killing four people, including two policemen, and wounding 11, according to police. Gunmen also opened fire on a police patrol near the al-Shaab stadium in eastern Baghdad, killing one policeman and wounding another, police said. Nobody claimed responsibility for the attacks, but car bombings are the hallmark of Sunni militants, who appear to be taking advantage of a waiting period before a planned U.S.-Iraqi security crackdown in Baghdad to step up attacks on Shiites. In other violence, police said: • Two mortar shells hit a residential area in Azamiyah, a predominantly Sunni neighborhood in northern Baghdad, killing two civilians and wounding 13. • A car parked near a police station in eastern Baghdad exploded, killing one civilian and wounding eight. • At least three people were killed in the northern city of Mosul, one by a roadside bomb and two who were shot to death when gunmen opened fire on the convoy of a wedding procession. Email Story IM Story Printable View (What happened to the "Discuss" option?) 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