Region | Iraq
Al Maliki vows to end 'dark days' in the north
Maliki flew to Mosul on Wednesday to supervise a push against the militant group in what the US military says is its last major urban stronghold.
- Agencies
- Published: 00:38 May 16, 2008
Baghdad/Mosul: Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki on Thursday vowed to impose law and order in northern Iraq and said an offensive against Al Qaida militants would end the 'dark days' of shootings and bomb attacks.
Al Maliki flew to Mosul on Wednesday to supervise a push against the militant group in what the US military says is its last major urban stronghold.
Buoyed by the success of a recent operation against Shiite militias in Basra, the prime minister said Iraq could not just rely on other countries for help, an apparent reference to the US military presence in Iraq.
"We have come to Nineveh to restore security," Al Maliki told reporters in Mosul. "Today, law and order is our message. We want to end to the suffering in this province."
Clashes between Shiite militants and security forces in Baghdad's Sadr City killed seven people and wounded 19 over-night, Iraqi police and hospitals said yesterday.
The dead were all men and the wounded included three women and three children, they said.
The US military, which has been engaged in nearly two months of urban warfare with militants in Sadr City and other strongholds of Moqtada Al Sadr, said it knew of two deaths in fighting over-night. "We killed two thugs," Lieutenant-Colonel Steven Stover, a spokesman for US forces in Baghdad, said. "Baghdad is relatively quiet."
Meanwhile, Iraqi security forces carried out mass arrests in Mosul as a new crackdown against Al Qaida entered its second day on Thursday, officials said.
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