Iraqi PM vows to impose order in al Qaeda haven

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki vowed on Thursday to impose law and order in northern Iraq and said an offensive against al Qaeda militants would end the "dark days" of shootings and bomb attacks.

Maliki flew to the northern city of Mosul on Wednesday to supervise a push against the Sunni Islamist militant group in what the U.S. military says is its last major urban stronghold.

Buoyed by the success of a recent operation against Shi'ite militias in the southern oil city of Basra, the prime minister said Iraq could not just rely on other countries for help, an apparent reference to the large U.S. military presence in Iraq.

"We have come to Nineveh to restore security," Maliki told reporters in Mosul. "Today, law and order is our message. We want to end the suffering in this province."

Iraqi officials hope the campaign, which started on Saturday and which is led by Iraqi security forces, will deliver a knockout blow to al Qaeda fighters where they have regrouped in Mosul and the surrounding province of Nineveh.

Maliki spoke after meeting senior military officials in Mosul to draw up plans to hunt down the militants.

"We have been through dark days, days marked by outlaws and groups with guns ... but this operation will succeed," he said.

Defense Ministry spokesman Major-General Mohammed al-Askari said one of the objectives was to round up wanted insurgents.

Iraqi military officials have said some 500 suspects had already been detained in raids in Nineveh so far.

Maliki appears to be trying to show that Iraq can increasingly take care of its own security without constantly turning to the 155,000 U.S. troops in the country.

Iraq's security forces have grown to more than 500,000 under U.S. training. American commanders say they have made progress but still have a long way to go before they constitute a professional fighting force.

"The solution to Iraqi problems is in our hands. He who runs to other countries to solve his problems is making a mistake," Maliki said.

U.S. HOUSE DEFIES BUSH

In Washington, the House of Representatives defied President George W. Bush by passing legislation that would set the end of 2009 as the goal for withdrawing U.S. troops. The legislation, likely to be blocked by Republicans in the Senate, has drawn a veto threat from the White House.

In Columbus, Ohio, Republican presidential candidate John McCain said he believed the Iraq war could be won by 2013, allowing most U.S. troops to come home. The five-year war is unpopular with the U.S. public and McCain's Democratic rivals have pledged to begin bringing U.S. troops home right away.

Iraqi officials said they did not know how long Maliki would stay in Mosul. His trip resembles one he made to Basra in late March to supervise a crackdown on Shi'ite militias there.

While that operation ultimately wrested control of Basra from the grip of militias, it got off to a poor start when the Mehdi Army of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr put up fierce resistance and around 1,000 soldiers deserted.

U.S. forces, left out of the planning for that offensive, had to step in with air and ground support. But crucially for Maliki, politicians across the sectarian and ethnic divide -- apart from Sadr's movement -- backed the crackdown.

U.S. military commanders have said that al Qaeda, while weakened, still has the capability to carry out big attacks.

Al Qaeda has regrouped in northern Iraq after being pushed out of Baghdad and their former stronghold of western Anbar province by U.S. and Iraqi forces.

U.S. officials blame al Qaeda in Iraq for most big bombings in the country, including an attack on a Shi'ite shrine in Samarra in February 2006 that set off a wave of sectarian killings that nearly tipped Iraq into all-out civil war.

Iraqi troops took control of Basra within a week in late March, but fighting between Shi'ite gunmen and security forces then spread to Baghdad and raged for weeks. Sporadic clashes have continued despite a weekend ceasefire.

Seven people were killed and 19 wounded overnight in clashes, police and hospital officials said.

(Writing by Tim Cocks; editing by Elizabeth Piper)