MALIKI

BAGHDAD (Reuters):

Shi'ite and Sunni leaders sparred yesterday over a government order to lift United States checkpoints around a Baghdad militia stronghold as data showed the number of Iraqis killed in October may have hit a record high.

U.S. troops lifted roadblocks around the Shi'ite slum district of Sadr City on Tuesday when Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered them out, flexing his political muscle after a week of public friction with Washington ahead of U.S. elections.

Supporters of anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr celebrated in the streets of Sadr City, bastion of his Mehdi Army. An aide hailed the end of a 'barbaric siege' begun to help find a kidnapped U.S. soldier possibly being held by militiamen.

"I'm relieved Maliki is finally facing up to them," said Mustafa Ayyub, 22, a guard at a bank in the mixed Karrada district where checkpoints were also lifted.

"This is a peaceful area, the Americans have to learn not to punish three million people for the actions of three people."

But Iraq's Sunni vice-president slammed the move, saying it could spell an end to a lull in sectarian death squad violence, which the once dominant Sunni minority blames on the Mehdi Army.

"I'm afraid that by lifting the siege the government sent the wrong message to those who stand behind terrrorism in Iraq. It says the iron fist will loosen and they can move freely," said Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, a Sunni.

Khaled al-Attiya, the Shi'ite deputy speaker of parliament, said militias were not the main problem: "All the militias will disband at the end of the day but these are not the main enemy of the Iraqi people," he said.

"The main enemy are the Baathists and Saddamists who want to destroy the political process and the main principles of the constitution."

U.S. AND IRAQI CASUALTIES RISE

U.S. President George W. Bush's Republicans risk losing control of Congress next Tuesday when Americans vote in a ballot dominated by arguments about whether to keep 150,000 U.S. troops in harm's way as Iraq descends ever closer to all-out civil war.

The death of a U.S. soldier in the western Anbar province on Tuesday took the U.S. death toll in October at least to 104, the highest in nearly two years