By NNN-KUNA
Baghdad : Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki said Saturday the time has come for the decisive battle against terrorism in the Ninevah governorate.
Speaking during an address at an emergency crisis meeting held in Ninevah and including several military and local government leaders, Maliki called on everyone to support the armed forces in their fight against terrorist activities, armed groups and members of the previous regime.
He urged armed forces, including police and army, to “act professionally” and not be biased while performing their regular duties.
He called on them to put Iraq’s national interests above all other considerations and added it is impossible to defeat the terrorists without help from the local population.
He made it clear that there was no room in the armed forces for other allegiances than those to the country.
He also called on the local government and other forces there to stand by the central government forces in their fight against terrorism.
Ten days earlier, Maliki had said in an address in Karbala that the decisive battle against terrorism would be in Mosul.
Meanwhile, a leading Al-Qaeda militant and a terrorist-financier were arrested in northern Baghdad Saturday, Iraqi and American security sources said.
A source at the Iraqi police told KUNA Iraqi and US forces captured Abdulrahman Al-Mashhadani, the military official of so-called Iraq Islamic State, in Tarmiya town in Salahuddin governorate northern Baghdad.
He is also accused of carrying out suicide operations and sectarian deportation in Al-Adl neighbourhood in western Baghdad.
The US army said in a statement the American forces have captured a person financing gangs.
The arrestee is accused of paying wages for terrorist groups in the governorate of Waset in southern Baghdad, it said.
In another development, a roadside bomb killed four members of the so-called “awakening councils” in Al-Shurqat town, north Baghdad, Saturday.
The men lost their lives when their patrol hit an explosive charge in the town located in Salah-Eddin Governorate, Iraqi security source told KUNA here.
The attack left also eight others injured, the source said under condition of anonymity.
The awakening councils are paramilitary groups formed by the Iraqi and the Multi-National forces to back the war against Al-Qaeda Organization in Iraq.