Iraqi forces backed by U.S. troops launched a new operation against Shiite fighters in the south of the country early on Thursday after the expiry of a four-day deadline to surrender arms."The operation started overnight.
The situation is normal and there has been no trouble," said Colonel Mehdi al-Asadi, police spokesman in Maysan province where the crackdown against the militiamen has been launched.
Asadi said the details of the operation would be announced at a press conference soon.Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had given a four-day deadline to Shiite militiamen in Maysan and in its capital Amara to lay down their arms which expired on Wednesday.
Dozens of Shiite militiamen surrendered to Iraqi forces hours before the deadline and police also recovered hundreds of landmines.U.S. commanders say Maysan has become a major centre for arms smuggling into Iraq from overwhelmingly Shiite Iran just over the border.
The current operation follows a similar crackdown launched by Maliki against Shiite militia in the main southern city and oil hub of Basra in March.That crackdown set off intense fighting between troops and militiamen, mostly from radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army, in Shiite areas across Iraq in which hundreds of people were killed before a May 10 ceasefire.
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