Baghdad - The Iraqi government launched Saturday a security
offensive against members of the al-Qaeda terrorist network and
militants in Nineveh while fighting was set to end in Baghdad's Sadr
City, media reports, and Sadrist and security sources said.
A spokesman for the security operation in the northern Iraqi city
of Nineveh, Riyad Khalil, told reporters that the new security
offensive was supported by US helicopters and troops.
The operation, codenamed the Lion's Roar, plans to target
militants on the streets of Nineveh and its suburbs.
Earlier, Iraqi media reported that Iraqi Premier Nuri al-Maliki
would be arriving in the northern city of Mosul to launch the
operation.
In the course of the offensive, Iraqi security forces imposed a
vehicle curfew in Mosul and closed all borders to prevent militants
from escaping.
In other news, the Iraqi government and the Shiite al-Sadr
movement agreed to quit the intense fighting that has been going on
since March 25 in Baghdad's Shiite Sadr City, Sadrist sources told
Deutsche-Presse Agentur dpa.
Asmaa al-Mosawy, a Sadrist official, told dpa that the government
has agreed on 10 points stated in an initiative of 14 points issued
by radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on March 30 to stop the
fighting in Basra.
Al-Mosawy said the clashes will end on Sunday.
The Sadrist movement seeks to stop any violence among all Iraqis,
whether they are members of the army or civilians, the Sadrist
official added.
'We hope that the government would fulfil its promises to
maintain security in Iraq,' al-Mosawy said.
However, gunfire was still heard in the Shiite enclave, despite
the agreement between the government and Sadrists to stop the armed
clashes, al-Arabiya news channel said.
Prime Minister al-Maliki has launched a security offensive
codenamed Charges of the Knights against militiamen of the
Mahdi Army militia loyal to al-Sadr.
At least 30 people were reported killed on Friday and another 70
wounded overnight during intense clashes between the Mahdi Army and
Iraqi forces in Sadr City, eastern Baghdad.
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