Middle East News
Five soldiers die in north Iraq blaSt; crackdown underway (2nd Lead)
By DPA
May 13, 2008, 13:23 GMT

Baghdad - Five Iraqi army soldiers were killed and four injured in a bomb blast Tuesday in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul as the government braces for a big offensive in the city, military sources said.

Also in Mosul, 400 kilometres north of Baghdad, four children were wounded in two separate attacks, the Voices of Iraq news agency reported.

On Saturday, the Iraqi government announced the launch of a military offensive in Mosul to clear the city of al-Qaeda militants.

However, the Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki Tuesday said the offensive had not yet started, but introductory military operations had been conducted.

The actual launch of the offensive would be announced when the preliminary operations end, al-Maliki said.

Iraqi National Security Advisor Muwafaq al-Rubayi, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that the operation in Mosul would come as 'a shock for all al-Qaeda cells.'

He added that the leadership of the al-Qaeda network had become weaker.