Maliki Sets Deadline For Basra Surrender
Guardian:
Iraq’s prime minister has set a deadline for Shia militants in Basra to hand over their weapons by more than a week, in an attempt to defuse the violence that rocked the southern city this week.
Nouri al-Maliki said the deadline would be extended from Saturday to Tuesday April 8 and said militants would receive a financial reward if they complied.
“All those who have heavy and intermediate weapons are to deliver them to security sites and they will be rewarded financially. This will start from March 28 to April 8,” the prime minister said.
Meanwhile, an emergency session of Iraq’s parliament was called today.
The government is working to end the violence in the oil city after an army crackdown on Shia militia sparked fighting across the south and mass protests in Baghdad.
“We agreed to hold an emergency session to discuss the Basra situation and how to resolve it,” parliament speaker Mahmoud Mashhadani said.
Mashhadani said representatives of Shia and Sunni parties had agreed to attend the special session starting today.
The radical Shia cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr, who helped install Maliki in power after an election in 2005 but later broke with him, has called for talks with the government. But Maliki has vowed to battle what he calls criminal gangs in Basra “to the end”.
The Reuters news agency reported that in southern Nassiriya, Mahdi Army fighters loyal to Sadr had taken over the of the city centre.
It said there were groups of fighters with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.
Militants also took control of the town of Shatra, 25 miles to the north, according to the report.
Authorities imposed a three-day curfew in Baghdad to contain the violence, in which more than 200 people have been killed since the government launched the offensive on Tuesday.
The assault on Iraq’s second biggest city has exposed deep divisions between rival factions within Iraq’s majority Shia community.
It is also a major test for Maliki’s ability to prove Iraqi forces can stand on their own and allow US forces to withdraw.
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