U.S. attack helicopters fired on al-Qaeda fighters trying to slip past an Iraqi checkpoint on Friday, killing 17 of them in the fourth day of an offensive north of Baghdad.
Separately, the U.S. military reported another American soldier killed, raising to at least 16 the U.S. death toll over the past three days. In Fallujah, a suicide attacker wearing an explosives vest struck a police patrol, killing two officers, the AP reported.
Meanwhile, Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, citing a "misunderstanding" of an earlier remark, insisted Friday that he backs the American policy of arming Sunni tribes to battle al Qaeda in Iraq. "The Prime Minister was the initiator of the policy of aiding the Iraqi tribes in all the cities and regions, especially those which have seen terrorist and outlaw activities," a statement from his office said, according to AFP.
In comments cited last week by Newsweek magazine, Maliki warned that the new US tactic was "dangerous because this will create new militias." "I believe that the coalition forces do not know the backgrounds of the tribes. It is a job of the (Iraqi) government," he added.
In Friday's statement, Maliki's office said there was a "misunderstanding of the prime minister's prior statement". "The government does not fear the arming of tribes but fears the chaos and disorder and the appearance of new militias. It is essential that all of these activities are under Iraqi control and done with government supervision."
"The government refuses to deploy these kinds of projects in a context that pits Sunni tribes against Shiite tribes," it added.
