Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq

Policemen stand guard on a road in Basra March 25, 2008. Heavy fighting broke out between Iraqi security forces and the Mahdi Army Shiite militia in Basra on Tuesday, a local security source and witnesses said.  (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    BASRA, Iraq, March 25 (Xinhua) -- Heavy fighting broke out between Iraqi security forces and the Mahdi Army Shiite militia in Iraq's southern city of Basra on Tuesday, a local security source and witnesses said.

    Sounds of explosions and machinegun fire resonated in the city overnight and in the morning soon after the Iraqi security forces surrounded several of the city's neighborhoods which are known as Mahdi Army militia strongholds, witnesses at the scene told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

    The police confirmed that neighborhoods of Haiyaniyah, Jamhuriyah in central the city were surrounded by Iraqi security forces, as they were believed to be the main bastions of the Mahdi Army militia.

    Early in the morning a mortar barrage struck the headquarters of the Iraqi Army 14th Brigade near the Jesr al-Zubair area in western the city, but there was no reports on casualties, a local police source told Xinhua.

    Another mortar barrage targeted the Shatt al-Arab Hotel in central the city, where the Iraqi Army operations office based, the source said without providing further details.

    The source said that a three-day curfew was imposed on the city starting from Tuesday, in addition to the closure of the Iraqi-Iranian border.

    Late on Monday, Brigadier Abdul Karim Khalaf, the head of operations in the Iraqi Interior Ministry, announced that a massive security operation will be launched in Iraq's southern oil hub of Basra, some 550 km south of Baghdad.

    The offensive, dubbed "Operation Cavalry Assault," aimed at curbing insurgency and sectarian violence in the city, Khalaf said.

    The operation came a day after the Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki paid a visit to Iraq's second largest city of Basra to restore order in the city where instability was spreading.

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