BAGHDAD -Thousands of Iraqi soldiers and police have launched a major security operation in northeastern Diyala province in the latest move by the government to stamp its authority over militants.
Sunni Islamist al-Qaeda has sought to stoke tensions in religiously and ethnically mixed Diyala, where a series of bomb attacks have killed scores of people in recent months.
Defence ministry spokesman Maj-Gen Mohammed al-Askari said the operation began yesterday with raids in the local capital Baquba, 65km northeast of Baghdad.
Maj-Gen Askari said police and more than two Iraqi army divisions were taking part in the operation.
There are between 7,000 and 9,000 soldiers in an Iraqi army division.
"The operation targets terrorist groups and outlaws . . . we have confirmed information that the province is the last al-Qaeda stronghold," Maj-Gen Askari said on Iraqiya state television.
Iraqi forces backed by US troops have also been carrying out extensive operations in the northern Nineveh province, where al-Qaeda is blamed for numerous attacks.
Al-Qaeda regrouped in parts of northern Iraq after a succession of military operations, as well as a decision by Sunni Arab tribes to turn against the militant organisation forced it to flee havens in Baghdad and western Anbar province.
Maj Gen Askari said prime minister Nuri al-Maliki was paying close attention to the Diyala operation because security there had an impact on nearby Baghdad.
Three female suicide bombers killed 35 people in the capital on Monday, attacks that echoed a string of strikes carried out by women in Diyala this year.
Al-Qaeda has increasingly used women suicide bombers because they can escape stringent security checks.
A witness said large numbers of Iraqi police and army personnel had been deployed in Baquba, where they were searching homes.
The US military was present in small numbers backed by helicopters, the witness added.
"The aim is to completely cleanse Diyala province.
"The Iraqi army will be executing this operation," said Maj Gen Abdul-Kareem al-Rubaie, commander of Diyala security operations.
Similar Iraqi-led offensives in Basra in Iraq's south and Baghdad's Sadr City - both once strongholds of Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi army - have been largely successful.
Iraqiya television reported that Mr al-Maliki had set aside $100 million for reconstruction in Diyala, echoing similar plans to boost spending elsewhere in Iraq to cement security gains with investment and jobs.
The US military commander in Iraq, Gen David Petraeus, said on Monday that Iraq's security forces might be able to take on security responsibility for the whole country by the end of 2009.
Iraqi forces have responsibility for security in 10 of the 18 provinces.
However, the US military has repeatedly said that recent security gains are fragile and reversible.
Monday's attacks in Baghdad and another suicide bombing in the northern city of Kirkuk killed nearly 60 people. - (Reuters)