BAGHDAD (AFP)
A 10-day operation by Iraqi troops in Mosul has succeeded in dismantling al-Qaeda's network in Iraq's main northern city, The Iraqi military said, as troops detained dozens of men in Shiite areas of Baghdad
"Operation 'Mother of Two Springs' has enabled us to dismantle and weaken the al-Qaeda network in Nineveh province," ministry spokesman Abdel Karim Khalaf told AFP.
A total of 1,480 people have been detained since the operation began on May 14, 300 of them wanted suspects, Khalaf added.
"Among those arrested were important al-Qaeda leaders, including both military commanders and intelligence chiefs, as well as members of Ansar al-Sunna, the Army of Mujahedeen and the Brigades of the 1920 Revolution," all Sunni Arab insurgent groups, he said.
Few clashes have been reported during the operations in Mosul and surrounding areas of Nineveh province.
Mosul is Iraq's third city with a population of well over a million. It has a mixed population including many Kurds and Christians, but al-Qaeda managed to establish strongholds in several Sunni Arab areas of the city.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced plans for a decisive campaign against al-Qaeda in Mosul as long ago as February.
The U.S. military has provided support for the operation in Mosul but it has been conducted and led by Iraqi troops. |
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Baghdad operation Meanwhile, Iraqi and U.S. troops detained dozens of people in search operations in two Shiite neighborhoods of southwest Baghdad on Saturday, witnesses said.
A spokesman for the Shiite movement of Cleric Moqtada al-Sadr put the number held at more than 400.
"The Iraqi and U.S. forces raided a mosque in Al-Amal as well as a neighboring market and rounded up dozens of people, some of them elderly men or teenagers," Al-Amal resident, Hazem Mohammed, 27, told AFP.
"My three brothers, one of whom is only 12 were picked up and so was my cousin," Mohammed said, adding that he had only narrowly escaped detention by the Iraqi troops himself.
He said the troops had no arrest warrants for the people they had detained and accused the soldiers of humiliating their detainees.
An army spokesman confirmed that troops had carried out search operations in the two neighborhoods.
They "arrested wanted suspects and seized several caches of arms and explosives," Qassim Atta told state television.
They carried out their duties with "professionalism", he said, giving no figure for the number of suspects who had been detained. |
