Baghdad - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki arrived Monday in the southern city of Basra, which is awaiting the arrival of security reinforcements to confront militias and gangs, while a British military spokesman said his troops were prepared to provide support if the Iraqi government asked them to. Al-Maliki arrived in Basra to inspect the security situation in Iraq's second largest city where Shiite parties and their militias and criminal gangs are all locked in a struggle for power.
Iraqi cabinet spokesman, Ali al-Dabagh, told the Voices of Iraq (VOI) new agency Sunday that security forces in the city will be restructured and reinforced under the direct supervision of the prime minister, who is also the general commander of the army.
Al-Dabagh did not reveal the size of the additional troops, which he said would "confront groups carrying out acts of sabotage" in the city.
Senior security officials have also arrived in Basra where acts of kidnappings and random killings of academics, doctors and women and assassinations of local security officials and politicians are common.
Amid the deteriorating situation in the predominantly-Shiite city, the central government has been trying to assert its control over the province by appointing Lieutenant-General Mohan Hafidh to head the Basra Operations Centre.
The centre is in charge of security in the province in coordination with the British.
Al-Maliki also appointed Major-General Abdel-Jalil Khalaf to purge local security forces of Shiite militias.
The general, who has survived several assassination attempts, is facing growing opposition as he continues efforts to fire unqualified policemen.
Khalaf told the local newspaper, al-Manara, criminality in the city is "a virus nurtured by a weak police force that has multiple loyalties."
British troops, which handed over security tasks to the province's authorities in December, are now stationed near the airport, about 25 kilometres north-west of Basra.
"British troops have no plan to return to Basra," a media spokesman for the British forces in the province told VOI Monday.
But the troops are fully prepared to support Iraqi forces if the Iraqi government asked them to, the spokesman said.
Speaking after the security handover ceremony in December, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said British troops retained the capacity to intervene in the city in case of a breakdown of order.
