The Iraqi government decided to dismiss more than 1,300 soldiers and policemen because they refused to fight Shiite militiamen during recent clashes in southern Iraqi cities, a security source said on Sunday.

Iraqi soldiers check motorists at a checkpoint in Basra, 550 km (340 miles) south of Baghdad April 1, 2008.

Up to 921 soldiers and policemen, including 37 senior officers, have been fired from their jobs in the Iraqi police and army units in the southern city of Basra, where the U.S.-backed Iraqi security forces fought Mahdi Army militia, loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, Interior Ministry spokesman Major Gen. Abdul Kareem Khalaf said.

He said the number included 421 police officers and 500 soldiers.

Some 400 local security forces also have been dismissed from Shiite province of Wasit, another major stronghold for Mahdi Army militia, he added.

"Those people showed sympathy with these outlawed people for sectarian or religious reasons. They did not do their duties in Basra and Kut as they supposed to," Khalaf said.

The majority of the Iraqi security forces are Shiites. During recent battles in southern Iraqi cities, many of the policemen and soldiers refused orders to combat the Shiite militia.

Late in March, fierce clashes between Shiite Mahdi Army militia and U.S.-backed Iraqi security forces raged the main cities in the Shiite south, as Iraqi security forces launched a massive offensive, dubbed "Operation Cavalry Assault" aimed at cracking down militias in Basra, some 550 km south of Baghdad.

(Xinhua News Agency April 14, 2008)