A city like that will always have murders and violence. As long as a single person is murdered there a year the MSM will sell that as the whole story.
The Iraqi military/police need to search every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse in the city. Spot checks of vehicles. Declare martial law and arrest every agitator/militia leader with/without evidence for 6 months. Anyone caught with a weapon in the street/car will be shot on site unless they are military/police or Coalition forces. Search every vehicle entering or leaving the city because once this starts the bad guys will try to evacuate their arsenals.