Iraqi SWAT kills 9 al-Qaida members

MOSUL, Iraq, March 6 (UPI) -- An Iraqi military team working with U.S. Special Forces launched raids in northern Iraq targeting al-Qaida strongholds in areas near Mosul.

An Iraqi Special Weapons and Tactics Team arrested eight suspected al-Qaida operatives and killed nine others in operations in the west of Ninawa province, the Multi-National Corps-Iraq said Thursday.

Military officials suspect the alleged al-Qaida operatives were responsible for several assassinations in the area as well as several roadside bomb attacks.

The team uncovered a weapons cache that included more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition and a foreign-made land mine during the operation.

In a separate raid in the western part of the province, U.S.-led forces captured an alleged al-Qaida financier believed associated with several senior al-Qaida leaders, the American Forces Press Service reported.

The operations in Ninawa are part of a broader effort aimed at destroying al-Qaida operations in the north. One U.S. military commander described Mosul recently as "the strategic center of gravity for al-Qaida."

Meanwhile, Iraqi army soldiers uncovered a weapons cache while on patrol in Baghdad that contained several mortar and anti-aircraft rounds.