BAGHDAD — Iraqi troops arrested the mayor of the southern city of Amarah on Thursday, raising tensions with followers of anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr as a third Iraqi military operation against Shiite militias in recent months got underway.
U.S.-backed Iraqi soldiers and police fanned out across the city of about 450,000, a Sadrist stronghold and hub of smuggler networks bringing in weapons from Iran to Shiite extremists. There was no resistance, and some gunmen avoided arrest by tossing weapons into the streets or irrigation canals.
The operation is part of a campaign by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to assert government control in areas of the Shiite south where militias have held sway for years.
Mayor Rafia Abdul-Jabbar, who also serves as acting deputy governor of Maysan province, was taken into custody at his office along with a member of the provincial council, Iraqi officials said.
Abdul-Jabbar, a Sadrist, was among 17 wanted people detained on the first day of the operation for alleged involvement in militia activities, Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mohammed al-Askari told AP Television News.
Al-Sadr’s aides complained that the mayor’s arrest violated the spirit of agreements made in talks with the government in the run-up to the operation in Amarah, about 200 miles southeast of Baghdad. Sadrists had promised to cooperate with the operation so long as Iraqi troops did not make arrests without warrants or commit other human-rights violations.
“We were surprised by the violations and the random raids in Amarah,” said Hazim al-Araji, a senior al-Sadr aide in the Shiite holy city of Najaf.
Despite its reputation as a smuggling center, Amarah has been among the most violence-free cities in Iraq in recent years, raising suspicions among Sadrists that their political movement was the main target.
The military action came a day after the expiration of a four-day deadline for militants in Amarah to surrender their arms or face arrest.
In announcing the start of the operation, the government said Col. Mahdi al-Assadi, the provincial police commander, imposed an indefinite curfew on parts of the city but said government offices, schools and colleges would not be affected.
Iraqi security forces already have found large weapons caches and munitions in the run-up to the offensive, it said.
Iraqi forces opened recruiting centers for the police and the army in the city center — offering jobs to young men in hopes of luring them away from militias.
