(Recasts with Fernandez statement that he "seriously misspoke") By Claudia Parsons BAGHDAD, Oct 22 (Reuters) - A senior U.S. diplomat who said the United States has shown "arrogance" and "stupidity" in Iraq said he "seriously misspoke" in an interview aired on Sunday after U.S. President George W. Bush said he was flexible on tactics, if not strategy. In an attack that highlights the problems Washington faces in recruiting and training Iraqi security forces, 13 police recruits were killed and 25 wounded in an ambush on a convoy of buses near the town of Baquba on Sunday. U.S. military deaths in Iraq in October have reached 83, making it the most deadly month for Americans this year and adding to pressure on Bush before Congressional elections next month in which Republicans could lose majorities in both houses. "We tried to do our best (in Iraq) but I think there is much room for criticism because, undoubtedly, there was arrogance and there was stupidity from the United States in Iraq," U.S. State Department official Alberto Fernandez told Al Jazeera television, according to a Reuters reporter who heard the interview, which was in Arabic. Fernandez, the State Department's director of public diplomacy in the bureau of Near Eastern affairs, said that he had misspoken during the interview. "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. This represents neither my views nor those of the State Department. I apologize," Fernandez said in a statement. The State Department had said that the English translation of the comments posted on Al Jazeera's English-language Web site had misquoted Fernandez. As violence rages, the Shi'ite-led government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has been meeting Shi'ite clerics this week to enlist their support in calming militia infighting in southern Iraq as well as sectarian strife between Shi'ites and Sunnis. Disarming militias such as the Mehdi Army, loyal to powerful young cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, is seen as crucial by the United States but has proved difficult for Maliki who relies on the support of the political groups linked to the militias. "GOAL UNCHANGED" On Saturday Bush held a videoconference with Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, top White House officials and U.S. military officials in Iraq, who have admitted that a two-month plan to secure Baghdad has failed to rein in violence and that the strategy is under review. In his radio address on Saturday, Bush said: "We will continue to be flexible, and make every necessary change to prevail in this struggle." He added: "Our goal in Iraq is clear and unchanging." The White House has drawn a distinction between flexibility on tactics and a big overhaul of the strategy in Iraq, and officials have suggested such a broad revamp was not imminent. Longtime Bush family friend and former Secretary of State James Baker is leading a panel that is preparing recommendations for alternative strategies in Iraq. But the Iraq Study Group's report will not be issued until after the Nov. 7 elections, when some polls suggest Republicans could lose control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Democrats and some Republicans say it is time to reassess U.S. policy in Iraq three years after the invasion. Some have suggested the administration might use the bipartisan group's findings as cover for an exit strategy. Key Senate Democrats urged the White House on Sunday not to wait until after the elections to give the Iraqi government a timetable to assume a larger role in securing the country. The top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, Sen. Carl Levin, said the strategy blueprint being drafted should include a schedule for pulling out U.S. forces. Sunday's ambush in Baquba highlighted a key problem -- how to establish security when police officers are often accused of sectarian or tribal loyalties, and police and army recruits are reviled by some for collaborating with U.S. occupiers. A local official said a bomb blast hit the convoy and then gunmen ambushed the buses. The attackers left the bodies of the dead lined up on the highway, booby-trapped with explosives. The U.S. military death toll in October rose to 83 on Sunday. On Saturday, a Marine was killed in western Anbar province and a soldier was killed in Salaheddin province. On Sunday in Baghdad, a soldier was killed by a roadside bomb and two other soldiers were killed by small arms fire. The U.S. military also came under attack in Ramadi, in the western Anbar province. Witnesses reported heavy clashes and a military spokeswoman said the U.S. base there had suffered "multiple attacks" but there were no U.S. casualties. (Additional reporting by Ibon Villelabeitia, Mariam Karouny and Aseel Kami in Baghdad, Caren Bohan and JoAnne Allen in Washington and Ghaida Ghantous in Dubai)
