Just in the past 10 days , Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki has rejected the notion of an American '' timeline '' for action on urgent Iraqi political issues ; ordered American commanders to lift checkpoints they had set up around the Shiite district of Sadr City to hunt for a kidnapped American soldier and a fugitive Shiite death squad leader ; blamed the Americans for the deteriorating security situation in Iraq ; and demanded speeded-up Iraqi control of its own military .