BAGHDAD — Iraq’s prime minister pledged Thursday to expand his crackdown on Shiite militias to Baghdad, despite a mixed performance so far against militants in the southern city of Basra.
Iraqi forces launched a major operation March 25 to rid Basra of Shiite militias and criminal gangs, prompting an uprising across the Shiite south spearheaded by the Mahdi Army of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Fighting eased Sunday when al-Sadr ordered his fighters to stand down under a deal brokered in Iran.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, himself a Shiite, said he would soon go after “criminal gangs” in Baghdad and elsewhere. He specified two Baghdad neighborhoods — Sadr City and Shula — where the Mahdi militia holds sway. Both areas remain under a vehicle ban imposed last week.
It was unclear whether any new operation was imminent, but residents of Shiite areas of the capital said many people began stocking up on food and water after al-Maliki’s remarks.
Al-Maliki also said the government would spend $100 million to improve public services in Basra and create 25,000 jobs there — moves aimed at weaning away support for the militias.
In a statement Thursday, al-Sadr complained that although he had called on his militia to stop fighting, the army and police were continuing illegal arrests and attacks against his followers.
Al-Sadr blamed the attacks on “corrupt elements” and said that if the government could not remove them, “we are ready to cooperate … to purge our army and police of such elements.”
The cleric has also called on Shiites to converge on the holy city of Najaf on Wednesday — the fifth anniversary of the U.S. capture of Baghdad — to protest the U.S. military presence in Iraq.
In Baghdad, an American airman on patrol was killed Thursday by a roadside bomb, the U.S. military reported. The airman, whose identity was being withheld pending notification of relatives, was on a patrol in central Baghdad when the attack occurred, the military said.
Also in Baghdad, one civilian was killed and 10 were wounded in a car bombing.
