Iraq readies forces for militia crackdown

Amara, Iraq: Iraq's government beefed up army and police units in the southern city of Amara on Sunday for a new crackdown on Shiite militias, witnesses said.

Convoys, including armoured vehicles and tanks, were moving through the northern side of the city, said a Reuters reporter. The operation, which officials say will start on Thursday, is the latest stage in Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki's drive to stamp his government's authority on areas previously controlled by Shiite militias or Sunni Arab insurgents.

Army Major-General Tareq Abdul Wahab, leader of the security operation, said government forces had a list of hundreds of "outlaws, criminal gangs and those who violate security" it would hunt down.

Amara is a stronghold of Shiite cleric Moqtada Al Sadr, who agreed to a ceasefire after US-backed Iraqi forces launched a major offensive on his Mehdi Army militia in Basra in March.

Success in Amara could boost Maliki's image ahead of provincial elections, due on October 1, seen as the battleground for a power struggle that could redraw Iraq's political map.