The U.S. military said Friday that U.S. and Iraqi joint army forces started a large-scale offensive in the city of Samarra, hunting for al-Qaida militants.
"More than 1,000 Iraqi soldiers and policemen, backed by U.S. troops, started new operation today to clean Samarra from al-Qaida militants," the military said in a statement.
According to the statement, Major General Rashid Flaiyeh, an Iraqi Army commander, is leading the operation in the Samarra city, some 120 km north of Baghdad.
An Iraqi police source from Salahudin province, where Samarra located, told Xinhua that U.S. airborne troops and Iraqi forces have been carrying out search operations from overnight in different areas in and around the city.
The joint troops detained an undetermined number of suspected al-Qaida operatives in the Mu'tasim area, some 20 km south of Samarra, the source said, citing police reports.
Since mid June, more than 2,500 Iraqi soldiers and policemen have been deployed in Samarra to provide security for rebuilding one of the most revered Shiite shrines of the al-Askari mausoleum, which has been repeatedly bombed by gunmen.
Source: Xinhua
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