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, The Associated PressComment on this story
BAGHDAD -
Nearly 1,000 people have been detained in a sweep to break al-Qaida in Iraq's sway in Iraq's third-largest city, Mosul, but many of the fighters have fled to nearby areas, where troops are hunting for them, Iraqi officials said Saturday.Iraq's leaders presented the crackdown as a success so far in depriving the terror network of what has been its most prominent urban stronghold since it lost hold of cities in Iraq's western Anbar province.But the flight of al-Qaida in Iraq fighters raises the concern they will regroup elsewhere, as has happened in the past.Yassin Majid, an adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, said most of the leading insurgents had fled to the outskirts of Mosul or to a neighboring country amid the operations. He did not name the neighboring country. Mosul is about 60 miles from the Syrian and Turkish borders."Operations will continue, and the Iraqi army will not leave Mosul until security and stability have been accomplished," he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.Maj. Gen. Mark P. Hertling, the top U.S. commander in northern Iraq, said he didn't think significant numbers of militants had escaped. He said Iraqi forces have surrounded the city.But he said some al-Qaida in Iraq leaders, who directed their Mosul followers from outside the city, may have stayed away from Mosul to avoid arrest, he told The Associated Press."It's been very successful," he said. "I think the combination of the arrests plus the uncovering of a number of weapons caches will reduce the number of attacks in Mosul."But he said insurgents could try to strike back in the coming days with suicide bombings in the city.
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