Shia militias battled Iraqi police for a second day running and bombs killed more than a dozen people yesterday, as US President George W. Bush talked of changing tactics.
The deaths of three US Marines yesterday brings to nearly 80 the number of American troops killed in October alone. If casualties continue to mount, this month will be one of the deadliest for US forces in Iraq since the 2003 invasion. More than 2,700 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq since 2003.
"Our goal in Iraq is clear and unchanging: Our goal is victory. What is changing are the tactics we use to achieve that goal," Mr Bush said in his weekly radio address.
Worsening violence in the Shia heartland is testing the Shia-led government's ability to rein in militias and exposing a power struggle in the ruling Shia coalition that threatens to further complicate the US task in Iraq.
"Attacks have grown significantly during the first weeks of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan," added Bush, who is facing mid-term elections in which discontent over the war is a top issue. "The last few weeks have been rough for our troops in Iraq and for the Iraqi people."
The New York Timesreported the Mr Bush administration is drafting a timetable that includes specific milestones for the Iraqi government to address sectarian divisions and assume a larger role in securing the country.
Citing senior US officials, the Timessaid details of the plan, to be presented to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki before the end of the year and carried out over the next year and beyond, were still being worked out.
"We're trying to come up with ways to get the Iraqis to step up to the plate, to push them along, because the time is coming," the paper quoted a senior Bush administration official as saying. "We can't be there forever."
But a White House spokeswoman disputed the account.
"The story is not accurate, but we are constantly developing new tactics to achieve our goal," White House spokeswoman Nicole Guillemard said.
Mr Bush held a video-conference with Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, top White House officials and US military officials in Iraq on Saturday, and a US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the concept of a timetable for the Iraqi government did not come up at the meeting.