Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq  

    TIKRIT, Iraq, May 25 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi security forces detained an al-Qaida leader in central Tikrit, the capital of Salahudin province, a provincial security source said on Sunday.

    "On Saturday night, local police forces detained Ali Hassan al-Sinjeri, one of the al-Qaida leaders in Salahudin," Major Ahmed al-Fahal of the provincial police of Salahudin told Xinhua.

    Sinjeri was accused of ordering attacks against civilians and Iraqi security forces in Salahudin province, Fahal said.

    A year ago, Sinjeri was released from the U.S.-run Camp Bucca prison in southern Iraq, he said.

    On Friday, Fahal told Xinhua that Iraqi security forces captured Abu Ahmed, another leader of al-Qaida network in Tikrit. The detainee was a financier of al-Qaida organization in Iraq's northern provinces of Salahudin, Kirkuk, and Nineveh.

    The latest detention in Tikrit, some 170 km north of Baghdad, came as the U.S. and Iraqi security forces are conducting a major offensive in the northern province of Nineveh to uproot al-Qaida militants from their latest strongholds in Iraq.