The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Amara

Iraqi forces backed by US troops launched a new offensive against Shiite fighters in the south of the country early on Thursday after the expiry of a four-day deadline to surrender weapons.

"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 has been launched. Asadi said the details of the operation would be announced at a press conference soon.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki had given a four-day ultimatum which expired on Wednesday to Shiite militiamen in Maysan and in its capital Amara to lay down their arms. Dozens of fighters surrendered to Iraqi forces hours before the deadline and police also recovered hundreds of landmines and at least four truckloads of other weapons.

US commanders say Maysan has become a major centre for arms smuggling into Iraq from overwhelmingly Shiite Iran just over the border.

"Before the Iraqi army came the situation was very bad, with armed militas controlling the whole area of Amara and the province," Abu Waleed, a 30-year-old trader, said as he sat at a local eatery with friends. "They did what they wanted and nobody could tell them what to do. We'd lost our rights." Security forces poured into Amara from Saturday, and police manning machineguns could be seen behind blast walls on the city's main roads.

British troops transferred control of Maysan to Iraqi forces in April 2007, but security in the province has remained fragile with intense fighting between rival Shiite groups to gain supremacy.