Iraq fires 1,300 police and soldiers in south

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's government has fired 1,300 police and soldiers because of their failure to perform during fighting last month with Shi'ite militia in the south of the country, an Interior Ministry spokesman said.

Major-General Abdul-Karim Khalaf said more than 900 were fired in the southern city of Basra, where Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki launched a crackdown on Shi'ite militiamen that triggered Iraq's worst fighting since the first half of 2007.

The rest were fired in the southern Shi'ite province of Wasit, where the fighting spread.

Iraqi officials have acknowledged that 1,000 soldiers refused to fight in the campaign, the biggest offensive yet led by Iraqi forces with little participation from U.S. or British ground troops.