Roadside bomb kills 2 Iraqi army servicemen in Ninewa

NINEWA/IraqiNews.com: Two Iraqi army servicemen were killed in the volatile province of Ninewa on Sunday, a security source said. “A roadside bomb went off targeting an Iraqi army patrol in al-Intisar district, south-east Mosul, killing two of the patrol members including a lieutenant officer,” a Ninewa security source told IraqiNews.com. Mosul, the provincial capital of Ninewa, 400 km north Baghdad, is viewed by U.S. and Iraqi authorities as one of the last remaining al-Qaida strongholds in Iraq. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered a two-phase military crackdown in the northern city in May. Ninewa officials said the gains from these operations, however, have disintegrated as militant groups re-entered the city there due to an insufficient number of Iraqi troops to maintain security following operations in May. AM(P) 1