4 al-Qaeda operatives detained north of Baaquba

DIALA / IraqiNews.com: Four members of al-Qaeda network were arrested in a military operation by security forces north of the city of Baaquba on Saturday, a media official in the Diala police command said. “A force from Diala police conducted a military operation today in Habhab, al-Khalis district, (15 km) north of Baaquba, arresting four members of al-Qaeda organization inside a house in the area,” Maj. Ghalib al-Karkhi told IraqiNews.com. Diala province, a mix of Sunnis and Shiites, extends to the northeast of Baghdad as far as the Iranian borders. Its capital is Baaquba, 57 km northeast of Baghdad. It covers an area of 17,685 square kilometers (6,828 sq mi). In January 2008 Operation Phantom Phoenix was launched in an attempt to eradicate the remnants of al-Qaeda network following the Diala province campaign between 2006 and 2007. Later on, the Iraqi security forces had launched a wide-scale security campaign in Diala province. The operation, codenamed Bashaer al-Kheir (Promise of Good), is aimed at tracking down members of al-Qaeda network in Diala, Iraq’s most restive city, after the armed group lost its strongholds in the western Iraq predominantly Sunni province of al-Anbar, where tribesmen fought its members and flushed them out of the city.   AmR (S) 1