Iraq's army meeting no resistance in crackdown in south (Roundup)

Jun 19, 2008, 14:20 GMT

Baghdad - Iraqi troops are meeting no resistance as they achieve their objectives calmly in the crackdown against Shiite militias in the southern Maysan province, a security official told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa on Thursday.

In the early hours on Thursday, the troops started a security offensive against militias after a four-day deadline for militants to surrender their arms expired.

'The offensive has started without armed clashes. We are achieving our objectives calmly and we met no resistance,' General Abdel-Karim Khalaf, the spokesman for Iraqi Ministry of Interior told dpa.

'Troops are working in normal conditions without having to impose a curfew,' the general said.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki had given militias in the provincial capital Amarah four days to lay down their arms. The deadline expired at midnight Wednesday.

Amara, 390 kilometres south of Baghdad, is in a rural marshland on the Iranian border where Iraqi officials say weapons smuggling from Iran and the militias' uncontrolled activity have created lawlessness.

Iraqi troops had to impose curfews in other southern provinces, such as Basra, and the Shiite enclave of Sadr City in eastern Baghdad, when similar offensives were launched in March.

Hundreds were killed in fierce fighting that erupted after the launch of a crackdown in Basra. Fighting stopped after a ceasefire was announced by al-Sadr on May 10.

The government wants to crack down on what al-Maliki calls 'criminal elements,' many of whom are linked to radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

The government has called in troops from cities nearby for deployment in Maysan.

Some 300 people were arrested and scores of fighters have handed over their arms, security officials said.

The deputy governor of Maysan, Rafi Jabbar, who is also a senior member of the Sadr Bloc of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, was arrested Thursday, the Voices of Iraq VOI cited a member of the bloc as saying.

Sheikh Adnan al-Silawi, who is the head of the Sadr Office in Maysan, told VOI that Iraqi troops are committing many violations, including raiding homes and insulting families.

Seperately, secuirty sources told The Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency that militants shot dead a woman and injured her husband in Rashid district in the northern city of Mosul.

Sources said that the injured was moved to hospital after the blast.