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
