By Xinhua
Mosul : The Iraqi troops raided an area in the northern city of Mosul on Monday, detaining 22 suspected militants, including six leaders of insurgent cells, and seized three homemade bomb factories, an Iraqi military source said.
“More than 2,000 Iraqi soldiers backed by U.S. aircraft raided the industrial area in southeastern Mosul early in the morning,” Brigadier, Muta’ Habib al-Khazraji, commander of the Iraqi 3rd Division, told Xinhua.
The operation, which lasted till sunset, resulted in the capturing of 22 insurgents, including six local leaders affiliated to the al-Qaida in Iraq network and the Ansar al-Sunna Army, Khazraji said.
The troops also seized three factories of homemade bombs and vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices, he said.
During the raid, the troops also foiled a suicide car bomb attack targeting Khazraji’s convoy in the area. The soldiers opened fire on the booby-traped car, blowing it up and killing the suicide bomber, he added.
On Sunday, Khazraji’s soldiers foiled three suicide truck bomb attacks in the city, killing a suicide bomber and detaining two others.
Mosul, the capital of the predominantly Sunni province of Nineveh, is some 400 km north of the Iraqi capital.