By Xinhua,
Baghdad : Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has announced a four-day deadline for Shiite militiamen in Maysan province to hand over their weapons to the Iraqi troops, Iraqi official television reported on Sunday.
“Those who possess heavy and medium weapons, explosives and sniper guns have to hand over them to the Iraqi security forces within four days started from Sunday in return for money,” the state-run Iraqiya channel quoted a statement from Maliki, the Commander in Chief of the Iraqi Armed Forces, as saying.
“As part of our continuing efforts to impose security and law and put an end to turmoil in the province, we have decided from today that Maysan should be a demilitarized zone,” the statement said.
On June 19, the security forces would start its search operations in the province, it said.
Witnesses in the city of Amara, the capital of Maysan province, said that Iraqi military helicopters dropped on Saturday leaflets on the city neighborhoods calling on the residents to cooperate with the Iraqi troops.
They also said that Iraqi security forces backed by U.S. troops deployed on Saturday on the entrances into the province and on its borders preparing for a military operation during the coming days.
Late in March, Maliki launched a similar crackdown in the neighboring province of Basra to fight Shiite militiamen loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, which resulted in the killing of hundreds of people.