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Baghdad: Iran called off further Iraq security talks with Washington until US forces stop their crackdown on Shiite militias.
However, the US military brought more air power into the fight and escalated its accusations of Iranian backing for extremists.
The latest flare-up has put Iraq's government in a tight spot as it seeks to stamp out armed Shiite gangs but worries about angering Shiite heavyweight Iran, which has close ties to the core of Iraq's political leadership.
Washington has long accused Iran of arming and training some Shiite militia factions. The accusations were sharpened Monday as the military said detainees described being trained at bases outside Tehran by militants from Hezbollah, an Iranian-aided Shiite faction based in Lebanon.
Iraq's Shiite-led government said battles against militias would continue even if Iran pulled out of the security talks. Three rounds have been held at the ambassador level since May and marked rare direct diplomatic contact between the two nations, which have had no formal relations since shortly after Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.
There are also worries that Sunni extremists are regrouping. Attacks blamed on Al Qaida in Iraq have claimed dozens of lives in recent days, including an attack Monday that killed at least 10 Iraqi soldiers and wounded 13 at a checkpoint in Diyala province northeast of Baghdad, the US military said.
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