MOSUL, Iraq, May 14 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki arrived Wednesday in the northern city of Mosul to supervise a military operation, dubbed "Lion's Roar," against al-Qaida in Iraq, local security sources said.

    Maliki flew around noon to the city airport to oversee the military operation which was launched on Saturday against al-Qaida militants and other insurgent groups, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

    Earlier in the week, hundreds of Iraqi troops deployed through the city's neighborhoods and raided dozens of targets believed to be involved in terrorist attacks against Iraqi security forces and civilians, the source said.

    Abdul-Kareem Khalaf, spokesman of the operations office in the Iraqi Interior Ministry, told reporters that up to 534 suspected insurgents were captured since the beginning of the operation.

    Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman Muhammad al-Askari said the Iraqi air force is taking part for the first time in the military operation.

    "The air force has provided air surveillance of areas in Nineveh province for the first time," Askari was quoted by local media as saying.

    The Iraqi security forces also seized more than 20 large weapons and ammunition caches in southern and eastern Mosul during the past few days, said Gen. Riyadh Jalal Tawfiq, commander of the military operations office in Nineveh province.

    Maliki promised last January a crackdown to uproot the al-Qaida groups in the province where they were believed to be regrouped after being defeated in Baghdad and other Iraqi provinces.