Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq

    MOSUL, Iraq, May 13 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi security forces detained some 500 suspected insurgents during a major offensive in Iraq's northern province of Nineveh, Iraqi interior minister said on Tuesday.

    "Our troops have detained up to 500 suspects for their involvement in violence in Nineveh province during the past three days of Operation Lion's Roar," said Jawad al-Bolani who arrived in Mosul earlier to oversee the offensive launched on Saturday against al-Qaida militants in the province.

    Local leaders of terrorist groups were among the detained, Bolani said, adding that two senior police officers in the province were also detained for their connection with the terrorist groups, according to intelligence reports.

    Earlier in the day, a provincial police source said that five Iraqi soldiers were killed when a roadside bomb struck their patrol in the Tal al-Rumman area in southwestern Mosul.

    U.S. and Iraqi officials believed that Nineveh province is one of the last strongholds for the al-Qaida militants in northern Iraq.

    Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki previously promised to conduct a "decisive battle" to uproot the Qaida operatives in the province where they were believed to have regrouped after being defeated in Baghdad and other Iraqi provinces.