1 100 held in Qaeda crackdown

2008-05-17 13:05

Mosul - About 1 100 people have been arrested during the first four days of a government crackdown on al-Qaeda jihadists in Iraq's main northern city of Mosul, the Defence Ministry said on Saturday.

Ministry spokesperson Major General Mohammed al-Askari said there had been no clashes during the operation and that 530 of those arrested were wanted by the authorities. Three of them were senior al-Qaeda operatives, he added.

"There are no clashes or killings," Askari said, adding that the crackdown codenamed "Mother of Two Springs" was continuing in Mosul, described by US commanders as al-Qaeda's last urban bastion in Iraq.

He said security forces had also recovered 1 400kg of explosives, 45 missiles, 263 mortar bombs and 175 assorted weapons during the latest crackdown.

However, there was no response to an offer of cash in exchange for heavy and medium weapons, officials said. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Friday announced a 10-day amnesty for those surrendering weaponry.

"Any house in Mosul has the right to have only one small weapon - a pistol or rifle," Askari said on Friday, adding the amnesty applied across the Nineveh province.

In February, Maliki announced plans for a decisive campaign against al-Qaeda in Iraq.

He has said he wants to replicate in Mosul the success his aides boasted of in the main southern city of Basra where a major crackdown against Shiite militias began on March 25.

That offensive sparked an uprising across Shi'ite areas of Iraq, notably the teeming Baghdad slum district of Sadr City where hundreds have been killed in seven weeks of deadly battles between militiamen and US troops.

A truce was agreed last Saturday between the Mahdi Army militia of anti-American Shi'ite radical leader Moqtada al-Sadr and the government, and the Shi'ite movement voiced guarded optimism that it would hold.

Despite the truce, one woman was killed and two children were wounded in overnight violence, medics in Sadr City said. The US military said the area had been quiet overnight.

- AFP