Iraqi Forces Crack Down In Mosul Nets Over 1100 Captives

Huge capture and arrest numbers coming out of the operation in Mosul but I don't know, something reeks of dead fish here from my perspective. Take a look at the portion of the article found here at Breitbart:

Around 1,100 people have been arrested during the first four days of a government crackdown on Al-Qaeda jihadists in Iraq's main northern city of Mosul, the defence ministry said on Saturday.
Ministry spokesman Major General Mohammed al-Askari said there had been no clashes during the operation and that 530 of those arrested were wanted by the authorities. Three of them were senior Al-Qaeda operatives, he added.
"There are no clashes or killings," Askari said, adding that the crackdown codenamed "Mother of Two Springs" was continuing in Mosul, described by US commanders as Al-Qaeda's last urban bastion in Iraq.
He said security forces had also recovered 1,400 kilos (3,080 pounds) of explosives, 45 missiles, 263 mortar bombs and 175 assorted weapons during the latest crackdown.
However there was no response to an offer of cash in exchange for heavy and medium weapons, officials said. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Friday announced a 10-day amnesty for those surrendering weaponry.

So let me see if I have this straight...1100 bad guys arrested and 3000 pounds of explosives? Isn't that 3 pounds apiece? And where are the RPG's? Now, I'm not going to be overly critical of this operation as it IS very good news but I haven't liked Maliki's fingers on this thing from the start because he was making promises and talking out of his ass about success before the first boot was on the ground in Mosul. So I am taking "good news" with a grain of salt and quite frankly, a suicide bomber's truck full of explosives like al Qaeda in Iraq has been running out of Mosul would have more explosives in it than has been found in all of these arrests combined.

It's my guess that the majority of these arrests are Sunnis who had some fringe ties to not al Qaeda in Iraq but some of the early Sunni insurgency groups. Again, I am not going to be a negative nellie here but this is still going to be a long operation and there is going to be a lot of blood spilled in Mosul before this is over - al Qaeda has never been much for surrender.

Iraq arrests 1,100 in Qaeda crackdown in Mosul

"Any house in Mosul has the right to have only one small weapon -- a pistol or rifle," Askari said on Friday, adding the amnesty applied across the Nineveh province.
In February, Maliki announced plans for a decisive campaign against Al-Qaeda in Iraq.
He has said he wants to replicate in Mosul the success his aides boasted of in the main southern city of Basra where a major crackdown against Shiite militias began on March 25.
That offensive sparked an uprising across Shiite areas of Iraq, notably the teeming Baghdad slum district of Sadr City where hundreds have been killed in seven weeks of deadly battles between militiamen and US troops.
A truce was agreed last Saturday between the Mahdi Army militia of anti-American Shiite radical leader Moqtada al-Sadr and the government, and the Shiite movement voiced guarded optimism that it would hold.
Despite the truce, one woman was killed and two children were wounded in overnight violence, medics in Sadr City said. The US military said the area had been quiet overnight.