A total 3,000 armed forces personnel will be deployed on the streets of Italy's major cities as part of new government security measures to clamp down on crime. The 3,000-strong force will come from the Italian army, navy and airforce and will work alongside police (photo) and carabinieri or paramilitary police. Italy's Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said 1,000 armed forces personel will guard immigrant holding centres out of a total 2,000 to be assigned to 'sensitive' sites. The 2,000 will work with the government's top representatives (prefects) in the southern provinces of Agrigento, Bari, Foggia, Naples, Brindisi, Cagliari, Caltanissetta, Catanzaro, Crotone, Syracuse and Trapani. The troops will also work with prefects in the central-northern provinces of, Bologna, Milan and Gorizia, as well as in Rome. The other 1,000 armed forces personnel will carry out nightime patrols in the southern cities of Bari, Catania, Naples, Palermo, and in the northern cities of Milan, Turin, Padua and Verona. The patrols will be conducted on foot together with local police. The operation will be monitored by an Interior Ministry committee containing police chiefs, and the heads of the armed forces and the carabinieri. Maroni and Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa on Tuesday authorised the operation for an initial six months. It is not the first time that troops have been deployed in Italian cities. In 1992 soldiers were stationed on the streets of Sicily after the Mafia blew up two judges in bomb attacks. Soldiers in 1994 also patrolled the border with Slovenia in the north east to tackle illegal immigration. In 1995 the army was sent to Naples to tackle the Camorra or local Mafia.