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Iraq army tightens grip on southern city

Reuters - Tuesday, June 17

AMARA, Iraq - Iraq's security forces tightened their grip on the southern city of Amara on Monday and appealed to Shi'ite militias to hand over heavy weapons before a government deadline for launching a crackdown.

"Our military forces ... have completed their deployment to ensure control of the whole city," the Iraqi Army's deputy chief of staff, Nasir al-Abadi, said in a statement.

The show of force in Amara, a stronghold of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army militia, is the latest stage in a government drive to extend its authority to areas that had been controlled by Shi'ite militias or Sunni Arab insurgents.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has given "outlaws" and "criminals" in Amara and the rest of the southern province of Maysan until Wednesday to surrender and hand over weapons.

He has authorised security forces to launch major operations from Thursday, saying the state must end "chaos" and crime in the impoverished province bordering Iran.

Maliki has already sent government forces into Mehdi Army bastions in Baghdad and the southern oil city of Basra and launched a campaign against al Qaeda Sunni Arab insurgents in the northern city of Mosul.

Maliki, criticised in the past for lacking resolve to stabilise Iraq, has gained a measure of respect at home and abroad with the offensives that have helped reduce violence to the lowest level in over four years.

The campaigns underscore the Shi'ite-led government's desire to take more control of security from the 150,000 U.S. troops in the country.

In the latest operation, army and police units with tanks and other armoured vehicles have moved into Amara, reputed to be a centre for smuggling arms from neighbouring Iran.

APPEAL

Abadi appealed to "deceived people to grasp this opportunity and deliver their weapons" to designated collection points at the local airport, stadium and police stations.

Abadi said the military deployment was aimed at plugging holes that wanted people could use to escape from the city.

He urged his forces to respect human rights and property while asking the province's influential tribal leaders to support the security forces during the operation.

Sadr sent a delegation of clerics to Amara last weekend with orders for Mehdi Army members to respect a ceasefire ordered by the cleric.

Amara residents say they do not expect clashes when the security forces enter the city. Some say militia members wanted by the authorities have already fled.

A security source in Amara said that, instead of handing in weapons at the collection centres, militants were dumping them in rivers, on streets or on farms.

Police were gathering up all kinds of abandoned weapons, such as mortars, machine guns, sniper rifles, and rocket-propelled grenades, he said.

Amara resident Mohammed Ridha said he saw a man taking mortar bombs and machine guns out of a pickup truck and dumping them on the bank of the Tigris river.

Two women later collected the weapons and were planning to take them to police in hope of receiving payment, he said.

Maysan Governor Adel al-Muhoudir told Reuters that the province's police chief, Ali al-Maliki, had been removed, but he gave no reason for the decision.

He has been replaced with an army brigadier-general.

The security source said a number of senior police officers in Amara would be changed.

Success in Amara could boost the prime minister's image ahead of provincial elections, due on October 1, seen as the battleground for a power struggle that could redraw Iraq's political map.

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