Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq

An Iraqi Mahdi militiaman is seen during clashes in the southern city of Basra on March 27, 2008.  (Xinhua/AFP Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    BAGHDAD, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki vowed Thursday to stamp out "criminals" while clashes between security troops and Shiite militiamen showed few signs to wind down.

    In Basra, the epicenter of the ongoing turmoil, fierce clashes kept the streets empty.

    Militants of the Mahdi Army, led by Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, traded fire with security forces in the Ma'qal area, witnesses said.

    They once seized a base of Iraq's security troops but withdrew about one hour later.

    Security sources in the city confirmed that several other clashes erupted during the day, but they refused to provide details as well as casualties.

    Maliki, who was overseeing the offensive in the southern city of Basra and has ordered the militants to surrender by Saturday, showed his determination to fight to the end.

    "People of Basra have invited us to do our national duty to protect them from the gangs who have terrified them and stolen the national wealth," Maliki said in a statement issued by his office.

    "We promise to confront the criminals and gunmen and we will never retreat from our promise," he said.

    Unidentified gunmen blew up early in the day a major oil pipeline to the Basra port, which would do great harm to the country's crude export, an official from the Southern Oil Company told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

    The source said that the pipeline carries one-fourth of the crude exported daily from Iraq's southern oil fields.

    Repairing the damage will take a long time, the source said without specifying the exact time needed.

    The Mahdi Army militia has threatened to set oil wells on fire if the Iraqi security forces would not halt their operations.

    A local police source said that Maj. Gen. Abdul Jalil Khalaf, police chief of Basra, survived a roadside bomb attack on his convoy shortly after midnight in the Jubaila area, about 5 km north of the city.

    Three of Khalaf's bodyguards were killed in the blast.

    Brigadier Eidaan Muttar, Khalaf's deputy, also escaped unhurt in another roadside bomb attack targeting his car in central Basra Wednesday night, a source from the city's operation office said.

    In the city of Kut, some 180 km southeast of Baghdad, clashes between Shiite militiamen and Iraqi security forces have killed 45and injured 85 others, said Maj. Gen. Abdul Hanin al-Amara, a senior commander of the local security troops.

    Amara said that his forces were regaining control in many of the neighborhoods.

    In Baghdad, dozens of gunmen attacked the house of Tahseen al-Sheikhly, the civil spokesman of the Baghdad security plan, dubbed Enforcing the Law, and kidnapped him in front of his house in the Amin neighborhood.

    The attackers seized the arms of Shiekhly's guards and destroyed two of his vehicles outside his house before fleeing the scene, an Iraqi interior ministry source said.

    The security plan, which was jointly launched by the U.S. military and the Iraqi government, came into force on February 14 last year, aimed at curbing insurgency and sectarian violence.

    In other developments, Mortar attacks on different parts of Baghdad, including the heavily fortified Green Zone, killed one civilian and wounded three.

    Around midday, fierce clashes erupted between Mahdi Army militia and Iraqi security forces in the Shiite neighborhood of Tobchi.

    The Iraqi authorities imposed a three-day curfew in Baghdad in a bid to curb the surging violence. Iraqi state TV said the curfew will be in effect from 11:00 p.m. (2000 GMT) to 5:00 a.m. (0200 GMT) next morning.

    Thousands of al-Sadr's supporters took to the street in Baghdad, demanding the government to stop attacking Sadr's Mahdi Army militia and release the detained members.

    They branded Maliki as an "American agent" and asked him to step down.

    The U.S. military, until now, has largely shunned direct involvement, saying that the Iraqi government was carrying out its own responsibility to clamp down on militants and activists.

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