Baghdad: Iraqi and US troops detained 81 suspected extremists during a three-day crackdown in Diwaniyah, where rival Shiite militia are ranged against each other, a statement said today.

The US military statement quoted Major General Othman Ali Farhud, commander of the 8th Iraqi Army Division, as saying that several weapons caches were seized during the November 17 to 19 operation on the central city, code named "Operation Lion's Leap."

"The northeast quarters of Diwaniyah, where the operation was conducted, were under control of criminal and militant groups," Farhud was quoted as saying, adding that the troops had suffered no casualties.

Iraqi security officials said that 3,000 Iraqi soldiers and policemen, supported by tanks and hundreds of US and Polish troops, launched the assault on Saturday to flush out Shiite militants from the city.

They said on Monday that in the first two days of the operation 49 militants loyal to radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr were arrested. Witnesses said the city of more than one million people had been placed under curfew and US aircraft had dropped leaflets urging locals to cooperate in locating militant hideouts.

Sadr's office in the town of Nafar, south of Diwaniyah, was also raided on Monday as part of the crackdown, Hussain al-Buderi, a member of the Qadisiyah provincial council, told AFP. Diwaniyah's police chief Major General Ali Akmoosh said the assault also led to the dismissal of 70 policemen, including some officers. "They have been dismissed for supporting armed gangs," he told AFP.

Source : PTI