Defense minister in Mosul to check on security

NINEWA / IraqiNews.com: The Iraqi minister of defense on Saturday arrived in Mosul city to check on the security situation there, according to Ninewa’s operations commander. “On Saturday morning, Abdelqadir al-Obeidi visited Mosul and went on a walkabout in several western neighborhoods,” Staff. Lt. Gen. Riyadh Jalal Tawfeeq told IraqiNews.com. Since May 2008, Iraqi security forces have been conducting wide-scale security operations in Ninewa with the aim of tracking down al-Qaeda operatives in the province. Mosul, the capital city of Ninewa, lies 405 km north of Baghdad. The original city of Mosul stands on the west bank of the Tigris River, opposite the ancient biblical city of Nineveh on the east bank, but the metropolitan area has now grown to encompass substantial areas on both banks, with five bridges linking the two sides. Despite having an amount of Kurdish population, it does not form part of the area controlled by the Kurdistan Regional Government Kurdistan RegionG). There are different communities in Mosul like Christians, Shiites and Kurds along with a Sunni majority. The fabric Muslin, long manufactured here, is named for this city. Another historically important product of the area is Mosul marble. The city is also a historic center for the Nestorian Christianity of the Assyrians, containing the tombs of several Old Testament prophets such as Jonah, Yunus in Arabic, and Nahum. SS (S) 1