Baghdad, Iraq ? Militants targeted police recruits and shoppers rounding up last-minute sweets and delicacies Sunday for a feast to mark the end of the Ramadan holy month, the highlight of the Muslim year. At least 44 Iraqis were reported killed across the country.

The U.S. military announced the deaths of a Marine and four soldiers, raising to 83 the number of American service members killed in October – the highest monthly toll this year. The pace of U.S. deaths could make October the deadliest month in two years.

Three soldiers were killed Sunday, two by small arms fire west of the capital and one by a roadside bomb in eastern Baghdad, the military said. On Saturday, a Marine was killed during combat in restive Anbar province and another soldier died in fighting in Salahuddin province.

“There will be no holiday in Iraq,” said Abu Marwa, a 46-year-old Sunni Muslim father of three who owns a mobile phone shop in the capital. “Anyone who says otherwise is a liar.”

In Sunday’s bloodiest attack, gunmen in five sedans ambushed a convoy of buses carrying police recruits near the city of Baqouba 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, killing at least 15 and wounding 25 others, said provincial police chief Maj. Gen. Ghassan al-Bawi. The recruits were returning home after an induction ceremony at a police base south of Baqouba.

A series of bombs also ripped through a Baghdad market and bakery packed with holiday shoppers, killing at least nine people and injuring dozens, police said. The attack came a day after a massive bicycle-bomb and mortar attack on an outdoor market killed 19 and wounded scores in Mahmoudiyah, just south of the capital.

An Iraqi father carries his daughter past the wreck of a car bomb Sunday in Baghdad's al-Sinaa district. Six people were wounded when this and another car bomb exploded Saturday.

The Iraqi Islamic Party issued a statement blaming Shiite militiamen for the attack in Mahmoudiyah, 20 miles south of Baghdad. The Sunni organization claimed Shiite militiamen had killed 1,000 residents in the town since the start of the year.

Bush stands by al-Maliki

The Bush administration has been wrestling to find new tactics to contain the bloodshed ahead of the U.S. midterm elections as lawmakers from both parties expressed wavering confidence in Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s ability to come to grips with the rising bloodshed.

Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Sunday that pressuring al-Maliki may not work because he does not have much clout.

“We keep saying, ‘Go to your Shiites and get them straightened out, or the Sunnis, or divide the oil.’ And al-Maliki is saying, ‘There isn’t any group here that wants to talk about those things,”‘ Lugar said.

Bush stood firm in his support for al-Maliki, saying he “has got what it takes to lead a unity government.” But the president noted the urgency the new government faces to stop the killing.

“I’m patient. I’m not patient forever, and I’m not patient with dawdling,” Bush said. “But I recognize the degree of difficulty of the task, and therefore, say to the American people, we won’t cut and run.”

The outcome of a White House meeting Saturday among Bush and his top security and military officials could become clearer early next week when Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, and Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, are scheduled to conduct an unusual joint news conference in Baghdad.

The Bush administration took issue with a report in The New York Times on Sunday that said Casey and Khalilzad were working on a plan that would outline milestones for disarming militias and meeting other political and economic goals.

The report said the blueprint, to be presented to al-Maliki by the end of this year, would not threaten Iraq with a withdrawal of U.S. troops. The White House said the article was not accurate, and the administration was constantly developing new tactics to help the Iraqi government sustain and defend itself and govern.

Apologies for ‘stupidity’

Also Sunday, U.S. State Department official Alberto Fernandez apologized for saying U.S. policy in Iraq displayed “arrogance” and “stupidity” in an interview broadcast by Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera.

“Upon reading the transcript of my appearance on Al-Jazeera, I realized that I seriously misspoke by using the phrase ‘there has been arrogance and stupidity’ by the U.S. in Iraq,” said Fernandez, director of public diplomacy in State’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. “This represents neither my views nor those of the State Department,” Fernandez added in a statement. “I apologize.”

Fernandez spoke in fluent Arabic in the interview, which Al-Jazeera said was taped in Washington on Friday. His remarks were translated into English by The Associated Press.