Maliki: Homeless squatters to be arrested

Family made homeless after U.S. bombing in 1993. The UN estimates that over 1,000,000 Iraqis are currently homeless.

BAGHDAD, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Thursday Iraqi security forces would start to remove squatters from Baghdad homes they have illegally occupied since the owners fled sectarian intimidation and ethnic cleansing.

"Today or tomorrow we will start arresting those who are living in the homes of refugees to open the way for their return," he told parliament in a speech seeking support for a major U.S.-backed security crackdown in the capital.

The crackdown, backed by some 17,000 U.S. reinforcements, is seen as a last chance to stem sectarian violence in the capital.

Tens of thousands of people, including Shi'ites, Sunni Arabs and Christians, have fled their homes in Baghdad because of violence and threats that have turned many districts that used to be mixed into sectarian enclaves.

The United Nations says nearly half a million Iraqis have been internally displaced within Iraq since the bombing of a Shi'ite shrine in February sparked a surge in sectarian attacks. Many more have fled the country.

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