Sadrists worried over Iraqi military plans

AMARAH, Iraq, June 16 (UPI) -- Officials with the party of Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr said Monday they fear Iraqi military forces may target its followers in operations in Maysan province.

"We do not want Basra events to be repeated in Amarah (the provincial capital)," the spokesman for the Sadrist movement, Salah al-Ubaidi, said.

Iraqi military forces under the authority of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki launched an invasion in May in the southern port city of Basra to take on Shiite militias in the area.

Ubaidi said his party wants nothing more than to cooperate with the Maliki government and called on Baghdad to push for a dialogue with tribal elders to bring stability to the province, the Iraqi news agency al-Sumaria reported.

Meanwhile, Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mohammed al-Askari said military operations would extend throughout all of Maysan, noting additional Iraqi forces would be called in from Baghdad if needed.

Maliki during the weekend gave militias in Maysan until June 18 to surrender their weapons to Iraqi security forces.

Al-Sumaria said U.S. military helicopters dropped leaflets over Amarah during the weekend, urging them to turn over militia members.

U.S. military officials insist the operations in Maysan are Iraqi-planned strikes.