Iraqi forces detain 1,068 suspected insurgents in Mosul_English

MOSUL, Iraq, May 17 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi security forces detained 1,068 suspected insurgents in a major offensive targeting al-Qaida militants in Mosul in northern Iraq, a military source said on Saturday.

"A total of 1,068 suspected insurgents have been arrested so far," with large amount of weapons and ammunition confiscated, said Lieut. Gen. Riyadh Jalal Tawfiq, head of the military operation.

Iraqi security forces detained 1,068 suspected insurgents in a major offensive targeting al-Qaida militants in Mosul in northern Iraq, a military source said on Saturday.

Iraqi army soldiers build the check-point at the main road, leading to the Shiite dominated Baghdad's neighbourhood of Shulla, May 16, 2008. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
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"This operation will last until we finish off all the remaining terrorists and outlaws," Tawfiq vowed in a statement. Iraqi security forces launched last Saturday an offensive dubbed "The Operation Lion's Roar" against al-Qaida and other insurgent groups.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki returned to Baghdad on Saturday after spending three days in Nineveh province to oversee the offensive.

On Friday, Maliki offered members of armed groups in Mosul an amnesty in exchange for weapons. He said the gunmen have only ten days to show up and hand over their heavy and medium weapons. Besides amnesty, the trade-off also includes an unspecified amount of money.

Maliki also ordered to change the name of the offensive to "The Mother of the Two Springs."

Maliki vowed in January to uproot al-Qaida members in the province where they were believed to have regrouped after being defeated in Baghdad and other Iraqi provinces.

However, extremist al-Qaida militants, struck on Saturday two anti-Qaida armed groups based in Diyala province, killing and wounding several people.

Earlier in the morning, some 20 armed men stormed the base of the Awakening Council group in the town of Wajihiyah, 20 km east of the Diyala provincial capital Baquba, killing three of the group members and wounding six others.

Around midday, a woman suicide bomber blew up an explosive vest outside another base of Awakening Council group in central Baquba, killing a policeman and a nearby woman and wounding more than ten other people. Several council members were among the wounded people.

The Awakening Council involves local armed groups, especially some powerful anti-U.S. Sunni insurgent groups, who fight the al-Qaida network after the latter exercised indiscriminate killings against both Shiite and Sunni Muslim communities.