By Xinhua
Baghdad : Fresh from a fierce clash with militias in Basra, Iraqi Prime Minister unveiled a plan to boost security and win hearts and minds of the locals.
The seven-point program in Basra includes boosting security forces in Basra by recruiting 10,000 new troops, restoring services, imposing a strict check on vehicles without licences, building new houses for the poor and turning government-owned palaces into tourist destinations.
Maliki, who just returned from the southern city, also said the six-day security operation against Shiite militias was a “success.”
Earlier on the day, Maliki ordered security forces to stop raiding and arresting Shiite militiamen randomly but said they should “deal strongly with any groups carrying arms in public.”
Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Sunday asked his Mahdi Army militia fighters to leave streets and not to target government and political party facilities. Meanwhile, he urged the government to stop random searching and arresting operations, and release the people detained for security reasons.
Hundreds of people were killed in the clashes across Iraq, helping to push the death toll in March to a record high since last August.
According to government statistics issued Tuesday, some 1,080 people, including 923 civilians, died from all kinds of violence in March, up nearly 50 percent from the previous month.