Bush says Iran bombs used in Iraq

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President Bush yesterday blamed Iran for helping kill American troops in Iraq, saying they are supplying some of the ever-more-lethal explosives that insurgents are using against coalition forces.

"Tehran has been responsible for at least some of the increasing lethality of anti-coalition attacks by providing Shi'a militia with the capabilities to build improvised explosive devices in Iraq," Mr. Bush said, adding that troops have seized IEDs "that were clearly produced in Iran."

In the first of a planned series of speeches designed to steel Americans' resolve three years after the invasion of Iraq, Mr. Bush continued to build a case against neighboring Iran as a destabilizing force in the region.

The White House has planned two more speeches this month and at least one speech next month on U.S. policy in Iraq to serve as bookends to the third anniversary of the U.S. invasion on March 20.

Yesterday's speech at George Washington University, to the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, was an update on the training of Iraqi security forces and a discussion of IEDs.

Democrats said the president is engaged in a public-relations campaign when he should be working on a strategy change.

"Instead of redoubling his efforts to help form the representative government in Iraq that is essential for defeating the insurgency and ending the sectarian violence, the president has launched another public-relations campaign here at home," said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat.

He challenged Mr. Bush's claim that Iraqi forces are better able to handle security. He pointed to Defense Department comments and reports that said the number of Iraqi units able to operate independently has dropped from three in September 2005 to zero last month.

But Mr. Bush said Iraqi forces now control 30,000 square miles, an increase of 20,000 square miles since the beginning of the year. He also said Iraqi military and police combat battalions have grown from 120 to 130, and the number ready to take the lead in operations went from 40 to more than 60.

He also said the sectarian violence that followed last month's bombing of the Shi'ite Golden Mosque in Samarra was meant "to provoke a civil war," but said Iraqis showed restraint and proved they want a stable state.