Hundreds detained in Iraqi sweep of Mosul

BAGHDAD — Iraqi troops have detained hundreds of people in the northern city of Mosul, where a massive operation is under way to clear the area of Sunni extremists, Iraqi officials said Saturday. But many fighters had fled to other areas, according to the officials and a spokesman for the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaida in Iraq.

The offensive in Iraq's third-largest city, where al-Qaida fighters have gravitated from other parts of the country, is the latest attempt by the Shiite-led government to show it is capable of tackling a still-festering insurgency and gaining control of al-Qaida's largest stronghold.

In a phone interview, Abu Obaida al-Janabi, an al-Qaida spokesman in al-Anbar province, said most of the group's fighters were no longer in Mosul, having been warned of the operation because Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government had trumpeted its plans for weeks.

Janabi said a small group of volunteers stayed behind to fight "a war of exhaustion" against Iraqi and U.S. forces.