Iraqi security forces are poised to launch a major crackdown in volatile Diyala province, the Interior Ministry said on Sunday, the latest in a series of operations aimed at stabilising the country.
Sunni Islamist al Qaeda has sought to stoke tensions in the religiously and ethnically mixed northeastern province, which has seen a string of suicide bombings in recent months.
The crackdown will be the latest Iraqi-led offensive aimed at stamping government authority on areas once in the hands of Sunni Arab insurgents or Shi'ite militias.
U.S. and Iraqi officials say a campaign against al Qaeda in the northern city of Mosul and surrounding Nineveh province has helped reduce violence there. Other operations have targeted Shi'ite militias in the southern provinces of Basra and Maysan.
"Soon, the security forces will be in Diyala to play the role they played in Basra and Maysan and Mosul, and Diyala could be the last stage," Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman Major-General Abdul-Kareem Khalaf told a news conference.
He did not give a date for the start of the Diyala crackdown and it was unclear if he meant the offensive would be the last major operation aimed at securing the country.
Overall attacks across Iraq were down 85 percent in June from a year ago, the Iraqi military said last week.
U.S. forces have been conducting security operations in Diyala since the beginning of the year and will take part in the new Iraqi push, a spokesman said.
The success of Iraq's recent operations has given the government confidence, which has been most apparent in calls by Iraqi leaders for a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops as part of a security deal being negotiated with Washington.
IRAQI FORCES NEAR "SELF RELIANCE"
Iraqi security forces were taking the lead in more than 75 percent of security operations, national security adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie told CNN television.
