Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Baghdad, Feb 3, (VOI) – Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said time was ripe to launch a decisive battle against “terror” in Ninewa province, urging all political powers, parties and local residents to back the armed forces in their efforts to eliminate armed groups and “remnants” of the former regime.

“Armed groups and remnants of the former regime have taken Ninewa as a springboard to start their criminal operations against local residents, capitalizing on the province’s geographical location and diverse groups,” according to a statement by the National Media Center that quoted Maliki as saying in a speech while presiding over an extraordinary crisis group meeting in Ninewa on Saturday.

Maliki stressed the “need by military forces and policemen to observe professionalism and neutrality while carrying out their security missions,” Maliki said in the statement received by Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq – (VOI).

“The local residents’ trust has to be won. The vanquishing of the terrorists can never be done without the residents’ backing for the armed forces’ efforts,” said the Iraqi premier, appealing for the local government and leaders in the province to “rally their ranks behind the Ninewa security operations command.” Mosul is the capital of Ninewa province.

Earlier on Saturday Maliki arrived in Mosul and met with leaders and military commanders to discuss security conditions in the city.

“Maliki and some security officials met after their arrival with Ninewa Governor Dreid Kashmoula and Mosul operations chief Maj. General Riad Jalal Tawfiq and others to discuss security issues in the city,” a media source from Kashmoula’s office told VOI on condition of anonymity.

Last week while delivering a speech in the holy Shiite city of Karbala, Maliki said a “decisive” battle would be fought with al-Qaeda organization in Mosul, the capital of Ninewa province, 402 km north of Baghdad.

Preparations were underway for a week now to hammer out a security plan in the aftermath of deadly bombing attacks in Zanjili area, western Mosul, which left 205 civilians killed or wounded.

Iraq’s interior ministry said it would not close border outlest with Syria from the direction of Mosul city, northern Iraq, during military operations to be carried out by Iraqi forces there.

“There are no orders to close border outlets between Iraq and Syria from Mosul direction during the military operation to be conducted by Iraqi forces in the province of Ninewa soon,” Maj. General Abdul-Kareem Khalaf, the head of the ministry’s national command center, told VOI.

“However, these outlets would be under the intensive supervision of the Iraqi security agencies,” Khalaf said.

He pointed out that he accompanied “the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Nouri al-Maliki, on his visit to Mosul on Saturday,” adding “Maliki, who was also accompanied by Minister of Defense Abdul-Qader al-Ubaidi, has met with the security commanders to discuss preparations for launching military operations against gunmen trying to disturb security and order in the province.”

The meeting was also attended by the undersecretary of the interior, the commander of the ground forces, the Mosul operations chief and a number of field commanders, Khalaf said.