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The UK government is questioning US control of its military operations in Iraq 13 months into the war, newly revealed documents show, highlighting the Blair government’s frustrations with its most important ally.

The documents, released on Cabinet Office on Tuesday, contained internal briefings prepared for former prime minister Tony Blair that raised concerns over whether the US had a grip on its invasion tactics.

“The prime minister may want to ask Bush if there is proper political control over military operations,” the documents said.

The warnings, which preceded a meeting with President George W Bush on April 16, 2004, also indicated that Britain believed that “many military officers (would) talk hard to an audience of US”.

The revelations reveal the UK government’s growing frustration with the US after the start of the first battle in Fallujah on April 4, which resulted in an Iraqi insurgent victory.

Blair’s decision to join the US-led invasion of Iraq damaged his approval ratings and led to pressure building within the party for him to resign. In 2007, Blair resigned as Labor leader after 10 years as prime minister.

A separate document from the UK embassy in Washington sent to Number 10 after the first week of the war revealed that the US deputy secretary of state, Richard Armitage, told the British ambassador that Bush wanted to “kick a donkey” in Fallujah.

But, it added, “faced with a dose of reality” that his actions could bring down the Iraqi government, Bush was forced to withdraw.

The newspaper said that Armitage believes that Bush “still thinks he is on some kind of mission from God in Iraq” and expressed his view that the US is “slowly losing on the battlefield” and there is “no coherent strategy” in operations.

He then urged Britain to argue with Bush that the United Nations should play an important role in building a political process in the country.

Before his meeting with Bush, Blair was informed by officials that Fallujah “does not reflect US planning at its best”, with American tactics “clumsy” and their “public statements (which ) raises the temperature”, making the situation worse.

The British hope to get a private agreement at the meeting that the US approach “needs to be more measured” because it is “losing political capital” for both governments.

The documents also reveal that UK officials believe that the management of the US coalition “has not been very good” since the start of the war.

The papers noted that the US believed that the Polish, Spanish and Ukrainian governments had “lowered the margin”. The British also expressed their own frustrations with Ukraine over a perceived lack of support for the war effort.

The “coalition of the willing” was formed in early 2003 before the decision to invade Iraq on March 20. At its peak, it included 49 countries.

The documents come ahead of a planned political transition on June 30, in which Iraq’s interim government takes control of the country from the established governing council.

The conflict finally ended in 2011 after a long insurgency from militant groups following the fall of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in 2003.

The Cabinet Office and Armitage declined to comment.