Baghdad - At least 50 were arrested Wednesday as Iraqi
forces continue their crackdown campaigns launched by Prime Minister
Nuri al-Maliki to maintain security in violent areas.
US and Iraqi forces raided the house of Amara's governor and
arrested 30 of his guards, governmental sources in the province said
Wednesday.
A source told Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency that the governor
was not arrested, as he was not home.
Meanwhile, Spokesman of the Iraqi Interior Ministry, Abdel Kareem
Khalaf told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that Iraqi forces arrested
the head of the Amara's provincial council.
Security forces arrested other three members of the provincial
council.
Earlier in June, Iraqi troops started a security offensive against
militias in Amara city, 390 km south of Baghdad.
Khalaf said that forces still continue to hunt down wanted
suspects adding that 250 had gave up themselves to Iraqi troops.
Also in the south, police forces arrested 15 wanted people during
raid-and-search operations in different parts of Basra, a security
source said.
The source told VOI that forces had also defused a roadside bomb
south of Basra.
Since April, the Iraqi government has conducted search operations
in Basra, 550 km south of the Iraqi capital, in a bid to disarm the
oil-rich city that was the battleground of fierce clashes between
security forces and militants loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada
al-Sadr.
In the northern city of Mosul, Iraqi army forces arrested a gunman
when he was attempting to plant a roadside bomb, said a source from
Nineveh police.
'The gunman was wounded in his right leg, before the forces
arrested him,' the source added.
Also in Mosul, one policeman was killed and three were wounded
during clashes between a police patrol and unknown gunmen east of
Mosul.
Mosul, capital city of Nineveh province, lies 405 km north of
Baghdad.
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