Al-Ghanemi said that security forces began the operation early on Sunday.
On Saturday, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi visited Basra and held a meeting with security chiefs, telling them: “I await serious action from you, and you must find the criminals as soon as possible.”
He also said that “groups outside the law were trying to terrorize the people of Basra, and they are a threat to all citizens.
“Our presence here is due to exceptional circumstances. Basra is important to us and we will not accept failures in protecting its security,” he added.
The previous day, angry protesters torched buildings belonging to the Iraqi parliament in the city, after two anti-corruption activists were murdered.
On Wednesday Reham Yacoub was killed by unidentified gunmen, and the previous Friday, Tahsin Osamah Al-Shahmani was killed by suspected Iran-linked militiamen.
Both were activists had played a leading role in the anti-corruption protests, which broke out in Iraq in October 2019 in response to high rates of poverty, corruption and unemployment as well as government neglect of essential services.
On Sunday, a protest took place in Baghdad’s iconic Tahrir Square to denounce the killings of the Basra activists.
Al-Ghanemi said that special forces had now been deployed to Basra to arrest those behind the killings, saying: “We will pursue the criminals and arrest the killers within hours.”
Hundreds of protesters have been killed and thousands more injured since the start of anti-corruption protests in October 2019, with secretive pro-Iran militias often being involved in the killings, as well as security forces. A previous round of arrests in Basra in May, focusing on the Tha’r Allah militia group, led to no prosecutions.
Renad Mansour, a researcher at Chatham House, has cast serious doubts on the Iraqi government’s ability to act against the militias.
“In reality, the Prime Minister and his team are unable to control these groups,” the Arabic news site Arabi21 quoted him as saying.
