By Xinhua,
Baghdad : U.S. and Iraqi troops swept Shiite neighborhoods in southwestern Baghdad on Friday, detaining hundreds of suspects, witnesses and police sources said on Saturday.
The troops surrounded and searched the neighborhoods of Baiyaa and al-Amil for several hours starting from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.local time, a police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
The source said that more than 200 suspected militiamen loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr have been detained during the raids in the two adjacent neighborhoods.
Witnesses told Xinhua that the troops rounded up more than 300 people, some of them teenagers and elderly men.
“Dozens of U.S. and Iraqi troops raided our houses and a nearby market place, and started a search campaign and detained many of our people, including my brother and two of my cousins,” Ahmad Abbas, 32, told Xinhua.
Abbas, who himself narrowly escaped detention, confirmed that more than 300 people were detained by the operation.
“I was preparing myself for the Friday prayers when the troops stormed my house. They captured my son who is only 14,” Hameed Jabir, 45, a shop-owner in Baiyaa neighborhood told Xinhua.
For his part, Qassim Atta al-Mossawi, spokesman of Baghdad security plan, told the official Iraqi television that his troops arrested some wanted suspects without specifying the number of the detainees.
He said that the troops seized several caches of weapons and ammunition.
Late in March, U.S.-backed Iraqi security forces began a massive offensive against Sadr followers in the southern oil-hub of Basra. The operations sparked heavy fighting with Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia across southern Iraq and in Baghdad.
The fighting with Sadr militiamen ended with a truce earlier in May. Since then, Iraqi security forces have continued raids to arrest wanted figures among the Shiite militias, and the troops appear to have greater control of the streets in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities.