Iraqi security crackdown nets 45 arrests in southeastern city

Yesterday, an Iraqi Army soldier guarded two suspected militiamen detained in a crackdown in Maysan province near the border with Iran. US forces also backed Iraqi operations in the south. (HADI MIZBAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS)

AMARAH, Iraq - Iraqi security forces waging a crackdown on gangsters and militiamen in the southeastern city of Amarah arrested at least 45 more suspects yesterday, drawing complaints of heavy handedness from representatives of influential Shi'ite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

The operation, which has met little resistance since it began Thursday, is part of a drive to restore government authority in areas of the country that have fallen under the control of armed Sunni and Shi'ite factions, including Sadr's followers.

A similar crackdown in the southern port city of Basra in March sparked fierce fighting with Sadr's Mahdi Army militia there and in the Baghdad district of Sadr City.

The cleric's followers accused rival factions in the Shi'ite-led government of using the Basra operation to sabotage their movement ahead of provincial elections this fall. More than 1,000 people were killed in clashes, which quickly drew in US and British forces.

To avoid further casualties, Sadr's representatives said the cleric had ordered his fighters to cooperate with the crackdown in Amarah, a Mahdi Army stronghold and reputed smuggling hub for weapons from Iran.

"There are orders from his eminence Moqtada al-Sadr to not react," said a Sadr representative who asked not to be identified for safety reasons. "No one will object to the authority of the state or the army."

Sadr's movement dominates government institutions in Maysan province, and scores of government employees have been detained in the crackdown, including the mayor of Amarah.

Among those arrested yesterday were 20 police officers accused of using their positions as cover to kidnap and kill, said a spokesman for the Interior Ministry. The director in charge of provincial irrigation projects also was apprehended after weapons were found at his office, the local police command said.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shi'ite, drew criticism at the start of the crackdown in March for running a hasty and disorganized campaign that did not anticipate the scale of the backlash from Sadr's followers. But Maliki's stature has surged since the cleric ordered his followers to stop resisting the government's forces.

Sadr has said he wants to purge his movement of renegades. His followers have also voiced concern that the violent showdown was costing the movement militarily and losing it popular support.

In Diyala province, an American soldier was killed and five were injured in three roadside bombings yesterday, officials said.

At least 11 Iraqi police officers were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near their patrol in Mosul, police reported.

A car bomb exploded late yesterday near a restaurant in Baghdad's Harithiya neighborhood, killing one person and wounding nine others, police said.

In a separate development yesterday, Iraq's oil minister, Hussain al-Shahristani, said a sharp drop in attacks on pipelines has enabled the country to increase oil exports from northern oil fields and profit from the rise in world energy prices.

Shahristani said pipeline attacks fell from an average of 30 a month in 2007 to only four last month. Most of the attacks had been in the north, where Sunni insurgents were active.

Shahristani told Al-Sharqiya television that the reduction in attacks has enabled Iraq to export more oil from the northern oil fields around Kirkuk to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.

Iraq's oil exports, most of which come from southern oil fields around Basra, have risen above 2 million barrels a day for the first time since the US-led invasion of 2003, the Oil Ministry said this month.

Material from the Associated Press was included in this report.