This morning at 0500 Baghdad time Operation Bashaer al-Salam (Promise of Peace) was launched. As Aswat Aliraq reports...

"Security forces conducted raid-and-search operations in different parts of Amara city, capturing key targets including government officials wanted by the authorities in a number of cases," Brig. Gen Abdul-Karim khalaf, the commander of the interior ministry operations, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq – (VOI). The interior official did unveil the key targets, but security forces arrested Rafea Jabbar, the Missan deputy governor. Jabbar is also Missan mayor and a key member in the Sadrist movement loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Khalaf noted "forces seized huge stockpiles of weapons and ammunition of different calibers, including 240 mm caliber bombs". "The offensive has not faced any resistance or impediments", he said adding "the operations would include a drive into Marshes area where important targets are hiding". The official spokesman for the Iraqi defense ministry said that the security operations in Missan, codenamed Bashaer al-Salam (Promise of Peace), started earlier on Thursday, during which six wanted men were arrested and amounts of weapons and ammunition seized.

In another Aswat Aliraq...

A senior security official on Thursday praised the role of Missan tribal chiefs in sustaining a security plan launched by the Iraqi government in a drive to crack down on gunmen and illegal border activities. "Missan tribal chieftains have a vital role in sustaining Fardh al-Qanoon (law imposing) security plan through agreeing on the key measures of Bashaer al-Salam (Promise of Peace) offensive," Brig. Gen. Hussein al-Awadi, chief of the national police, said. Speaking at a press conference attended by a number of tribal chiefs and top security officials, Awadi said "the actions of Missan tribal chiefs are complementary to the role played by the tribes of Anbar, Basra and Mosul in supporting security forces, handing over gunmen and imposing law and order". An official spokesman for the Iraqi defense ministry said that Bashaer al-Salam has started earlier on Thursday. The national police official noted he "ordered forming four battalions from tribesmen to sustain Bashaer al-Salam plan," adding "applications would be approved by tribal chiefs in association with the Missan police command". Earlier, Maj. General Ali Ghidan, Iraq's ground forces commander, said he received the thumbs-up to form two fresh battalions in Missan, increasing the number of formed battalion to four. The army official underlined that "the new stage of reconstruction and development would start by the arrival of a delegation from the service ministries to oversee projects". He also unveiled plans to provide "job opportunities in the traffic police and national identifications card department to deliver services for the Missan residents"

Juan Cole has more...

Iraqi forces maintained that 60 militiamen surrendered ahead of the operation. The offices of the Sadr Movement in Amara were abandoned on Thursday morning and the outside walls pockmarked with bullet holes. That tells me that the push on Maysan Province was an attempt to weaken the Sadrists in the one province they presently control. Abdul Aziz al-Hakim of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq needs Maysan if he is to achieve his goal of melding 8 southern Shiite provinces into a single super-province.

Al-Hayat says that nevertheless, Sadrist leaders hailed al-Maliki for keeping his pledge not to arbitrarily arrest large numbers of Sadrists in the province. Still, Al-Hayat says that provincial council members, clergymen and local notables made a concerted effort to monitor the influx of Iraqi troops to ensure that they did not commit excesses.

Al-Hayat says that Maysan was a refuge for dissidents from Saddam in the old days, and is now again a refuge, this time for those fleeing al-Maliki.

I agree with Juan that it is a determined effort to weaken the Sadrists, as I've mentioned in prior posts. In other news out of Iraq, in a highly unusual, if not outright suspicious move, MNF-I named the individual they think is responsible for the recent car bomb in Baghdad...

The U.S. military says a renegade Shi'ite group ordered Tuesday's deadly car bomb attack on a Shi'ite neighborhood in Baghdad to incite sectarian violence against Sunnis.

Military spokesman Steven Stover Wednesday said the attack, which killed 63 people and wounded 75 others, was the work of a so-called Shi'ite "special group" led by Haydar Mehdi Khadum al-Fawadi.

Stover said Fawadi ordered the attack to stop Sunni resettlement of the Hurriyah neighborhood.

Tuesday's bombing was the deadliest in the Iraqi capital in more than three months, when U.S. and Iraqi forces began observing a truce with Shi'ite militants.

Let me get this straight a Shi'a sets off a car bomb in a Shi'a neighborhood to prevent Sunnis from moving into the area... Yeppers, makes perfect sense to me...! We need to stop this madness now!