Give up arms or else, Iraqi PM warns militants

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has given militiamen in the southern province of Maysan four days to surrender their weapons ahead of a planned military assault in the Shiite bastion, as the movement of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr will not compete in local elections under its own name but join with other groups and ask its followers to vote for those candidates.

"Those who have heavy and medium weapons, explosives or sniper guns, must hand them over to the security forces over the next four days until June 18 in return for cash," Maliki said in a statement issued late on Saturday.

He said those who are accused of crimes but "do not have blood of Iraqis on their hands" must also report to the security forces within four days. After the June 19 deadline, the military will start search operations.

"As part of our continuing efforts to impose security and law and putting an end to the chaos of crimes, we have decided that from today the province of Maysan should be without arms," Maliki said.

As part of the pending crackdown in Maysan, a groundswell of Iraqi and US forces began moving into the provincial capital of Amara on Saturday for an operation the local authorities said would target rebel groups.

British troops transferred security control of Maysan to Iraqi forces in April 2007, but peace in the province, and Amara in particular, has remained fragile, with intense Shiite infighting.

Amra, located close to the Iranian border, is thought by U.S.-led forces to be a primary channel for weapons flowing into Iraq from its overwhelmingly Shiite neighbor.

Maliki launched a similar assault against rival Shiite militias, mainly the anti-U.S. Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army, in the main southern city and oil hub of Basra in March.

It triggered street battles between the militiamen and security forces in Basra and other Shiite regions which left hundreds of people dead.

Sadr's chief spokesman Salah al-Obeidi voiced concern that the Amara assault would target Sadrists, followers of the powerful Shiite movement led by the firebrand cleric.

"We have big fears that this campaign could be directed against Sadrists. So we have offered our help to the government but we have not received an answer from them," Obeidi told AFP.

"We do not want Basra events to be repeated in Amara," Obeidi said, urging the government to promote dialogue with local tribal leaders as was done in an operation last month in the main northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

He, meanwhile, denied reports the group was boycotting the polls, which are scheduled for Oct. 1 and seen as the battleground for a power struggle that could redraw Iraq's political map.

The move by the opposition Sadr bloc would be a way to get around a draft elections law that is expected to ban any group that has a militia from taking part in the polls.