By NNN-KUNA,
Baghdad : US military spokesman Rear Admiral Patrick Driscoll has said here that only the security forces were authorised to carry and use weapons.
Others would be considered as criminals and would be brought to justice, he said.
Driscoll said controlling the Iraq-Iran borders was tough, and noted that weapons and money were smuggled across the borders, but the most serious was the infiltration of people to attack security forces and civilians.
At a joint news conference with Iraqi government spokesman Ali Dabbagh Sunday, Driscoll said the American and Iraqi forces were targeting gangs carrying weapons illegally and were attacking the security forces.
Driscoll said the US army has released more than 12,000 prisoners since last year. These inmates, he said, were subjected to a rehabilitation programme and only 1 per cent of them were recaptured.
The spokesman admitted tough control of borders with Iran and thus stopping infiltration of people who came to Iraq to carry out suicide attacks.
Driscoll, meanwhile, said the people of Basra affirmed that life was starting to return to normal with shops, coffee shops and restaurants reopening.