Baghdad - Iraq's security forces were ordered Tuesday to collect arms from ordinary people and political parties in Baghdad, while Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr postponed a planned protest against US presence in Iraq. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered security forces to enforce the ban on gun ownership in the next days, General Qasim Atta, the spokesman for the Baghdad operations, told reporters.
Medium and heavy guns, explosives and all kinds of rockets will be collected to remove all military appearances in the capital, Atta said.
Baghdad's Shiite-dominated Kazimiyah district was declared a weapons-free area in accordance with a government order to demilitarize Iraq's holy cities, according to Atta.
Kazimiyah, which houses a shrine of Shiite Imam Mussa al-Kazim, is one of the strongholds of the Mahdi Army militia loyal to cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
People in the district have been urged to hand in light, medium and heavy weapons as well as explosives and any other weapons within three days from April 9.
Those surrendering their weapons would be given money rewards while those who refused would be held accountable, the general said.
In the southern city of Basra, security forces were ordered to target from Wednesday armed people and groups who had not handed in their weapons by Tuesday, a senior official from Iraqi Minister of Interior, General Abdel-Karim Khalaf, told the media.
The Iraqi government gave a 10-day deadline for militias and people in Basra to hand in their arms.
Basra has been the scene of fighting between Iraqi troops and Shiite militias, mainly Mahdi Army, since the government launched a crackdown on March 25.
Meanwhile, heavy fighting erupted Tuesday in a Shiite district in eastern Baghdad between Mahdi Army militiamen and Iraqi and US troops, witnesses said.
Loud explosions were heard in Sadr City, the Mahdi Army stronghold, and US helicopters were opening fire in the area, which has been encircled by US and Iraqi troops for nearly two weeks, the witnesses told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
At least seven people were reported killed in the fighting.
After the launch of the Basra offensive, fighting erupted in southern Shiite-dominated cities and areas in Baghdad between the Mahdi Army and US and Iraqi troops.
Meanwhile, al-Sadr postponed a planned mass protest against US occupation of Iraq, which was set to be staged in Baghdad on Wednesday.
The cleric postponed the march out of fear that protestors might be attacked, al-Sadr said in a statement.
Al-Sadr threatened to end a Mahdi Army truce he declared in August and extended for six months in February.
The statement comes a day after al-Maliki urged al-Sadr to disband his militia, otherwise, his political Sadr Bloc movement would be barred from a key municipal election due to be held in October.
In the eastern Diyala province, four children and two women were killed and five people injured by a bomb that hit a minibus they were riding in Baldruz, south-east of the provincial capital Baquba, according to media reports.
Meanwhile, insurgents have killed six US soldiers in Iraq, the US military reported Tuesday.
Four were killed Sunday and Monday in attacks in the capital Baghdad, while two others were killed by a bomb in the city of Balad to the north of Baghdad.
Suspected al-Qaeda terrorists killed a clan chief and his three sons Monday evening near the village of Khalis to the north-east of Baghdad, Aswat al-Iraq news agency reported.
Sheikh Aziz Mohammed Faraj, head of the Obaid clan, was a brother- in-law of the former vice president, Isset Ibrahim al-Duri, who went into hiding five years ago when the US-led invasion toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein.
Al-Duri is believed to be supporting the armed struggle against the US occupation of Iraq.
Faraj was head of a local militia that was fighting al-Qaeda, Aswat al-Iraq reported.
