MOSUL, Iraq (AFP) — Iraq on Friday offered cash in exchange for weapons in the main northern city of Mosul, described by US commanders as Al-Qaeda's last urban bastion in the country, as a crackdown against the insurgents entered its third day.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announced a 10-day amnesty for surrendering heavy amd medium weaponry after he arrived the capital of Nineveh province on Wednesday to launch the operation codenamed "Mother of Two Springs."
On Friday he said the crackdown was going well.
"The process will achieve its objectives," Maliki said in a statement which added that it was the duty of all citizens to cooperate to rid the region of "evil terrorists and remnants of the former regime."
The premier said the amnesty will cover those who had not been involved in attacks on civilians.
Defence ministry spokesman Major General Mohammed al-Askari said the amnesty would apply across Nineveh province which borders Turkey and Syria.
"Any house in Mosul has the right to have only one small weapon -- a pistol or rifle," Askari told AFP.
He said there had been no clashes since the latest offensive was launched on Wednesday with US troops providing logistical and intelligence support.
"The operation includes a mechanism supported by the prime minister to make Mosul a demilitarised zone," Askari added.
Details of the cash for weapons offer were not immediately known.
Iraqi security forces backed by US troops have arrested some 833 suspects in the province this week, and some 530 of these were on a wanted list, interior ministry spokesman Major General Abdul Kareem Khalaf told AFP.
An overnight curfew was relaxed at daybreak.
In February Maliki announced plans for a decisive campaign against Al-Qaeda.
He said he wanted to replicate in Mosul the success his aides boasted of in the main southern city of Basra where a major crackdown against Shiite militias began on March 25.
That offensive sparked an uprising across Shiite areas of Iraq, notably the teeming Baghdad slum district of Sadr City where hundreds have been killed in seven weeks of deadly battles between militiamen and US troops.
A truce agreed last Saturday between the Mahdi Army militia of Shiite radical leader Moqtada al-Sadr and the government was under way on Friday, and the Shiite movement voiced optimism that it would hold.
"A delegation of five members from the Sadr movement arrived in Sadr City with the guidance of Moqtada al-Sadr to follow up the implementation," Sadr spokesman Salah Al-Obeidi told AFP in the central shrine city of Najaf.
"There is good cooperation between the Iraqi forces and the Sadr movement," he added.
Sheikh Mohanned Moussawi who headed Sadr's delegation told the faithful at Friday prayers that residents should honour the truce.
"The recommendation of Moqtada al-Sadr is to avoid bloodshed," he said outside the cleric's office in Sadr City.
"He doesn't want Iraqi to kill Iraq. If one Iraqi wants to become a martyr I want him to fight the American occupation. We like peace and we extend our hand to the Iraqi security forces."
Hundreds of people have been killed in fighting in the sprawling slum district of some two million people since late March.
Obeidi said that he hoped American forces who have been battling militiamen there will now withdraw. There was no immediate comment from the US military.
The truce provides for Iraqi security forces to deploy in Sadr City but there were no immediate signs of them moving in.
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