DickHardman

BAGHDAD -- Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki today offered amnesty to Sunni Arab militants in the northern city of Mosul who turn in their weapons in exchange for unspecified financial compensation.

The offer came as government troops press an offensive in the city, which the U.S. military has called the last urban stronghold of militants loyal to Al Qaeda in Iraq.

A statement issued by Maliki's office gave members of armed groups 10 days to hand over their heavy and medium weapons to the Iraqi security forces or tribal leaders in their areas.

"Gunmen who carried weapons against government forces but were not involved in crimes against civilians shall be granted amnesty and also the opportunity to participate in building the new Iraq," the statement said.

Maliki, who flew to Mosul on Wednesday to take charge of the operation, promised monetary compensation for any weapons surrendered, but said the details would be released later.

U.S. and Iraqi officials believe insurgents driven out of Baghdad and Anbar province in western Iraq last year have regrouped in and around Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city and a gateway for fighters and weapons smuggled across the Syrian boarder. The number of attacks have increased there since the summer, even as violence dropped in the rest of the country.

The Iraqi operation had been promised for months, but was delayed by the fierce backlash to a government crackdown on Shiite militiamen in the southern city of Basra and parts of Baghdad.

A statement was read out today in mosques affiliated with radical Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr, urging followers to respect an agreement reached with the governing Shiite political alliance to end fighting in the Sadr City neighborhood, the cleric's Baghdad stronghold. The statement was signed by the "general military command" of Sadr's Mahdi Army militia.

In violence today, a suicide car bomber attacked a police station in Fallouja, killing eight other people and injuring nine, police and hospital officials said. It was the latest in a string of attacks in Anbar province, suggesting that Sunni militants may be trying to stage a comeback in their former stronghold.

A 6-month-old girl and four policemen were among the dead, police said. Police at the scene beat up a photographer and a cameraman working for Reuters news service as they tried to record the aftermath, the news agency said. The photographer required hospital treatment.

Iraq offers Sunni militants in Mosul money for their weapons - Los Angeles Times