Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki vowed Thursday to crack down on insurgency without mercy and would not let militants find safe haven in Iraq, including mosques and schools.

In his speech to the parliament, al-Maliki urged lawmakers to support his security plan dubbed "Operation Imposing Law" which he said would target Sunni and Shiite militants equally.

"We have no other choice but to hit any place from where we receive fire. There will be no safe haven, no home, no school or mosque," he said.

"This plan will not be the last as the battle against terrorism is an open-ended one," he said.
 
The prime minister said that Baghdad would be divided into nine sectors and joint Iraqi police and army forces would be in the lead, backed by American forces.

He said that Iraqi security forces would start to remove people living in homes of refugees to pave the way for displaced families to return.

"Today or tomorrow we will start arresting those who are occupying homes of refugees to let those forcedly-displaced families return," he said.

Thousands of Shiite, Sunni and Christian families fled their homes because of sectarian violence, turning previously mixed districts into sectarian bastions.

Of 275 parliament members, 160 legislators who were present at the session backed al-Maliki's security plan.

Meanwhile, the death toll rose to 25 from a car bombing in the Karrada district in central Baghdad Thursday afternoon, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua.

A total of 50 people were injured in the blast, which occurred in a market at about 4:30 PM (13:30 GMT), the source said on condition of anonymity, adding that some shops were also damaged.
 
Earlier, the source said that the blast killed 20 people and injured 20 others.

The bombing came shortly after two mortar shells or rockets fell into Green Zone, which houses offices of the Iraqi government and the US Embassy.

The explosions, caused by the shelling, triggered the alarming system warning people in Green Zone to take cover.

(Xinhua News Agency January 26, 2007)