Baghdad  - The Iraqi government launched Saturday a security offensive against members of the al-Qaeda terrorist network and militants in Nineveh, media reports and security sources said.

A spokesman for the security operation in the northern Iraqi city of Nineveh, Riyad Khalil, told reporters that the new security offensive was supported by US helicopters and troops.

The operation, codenamed the Lion's Roar, plans to target militants on the streets of Nineveh and its suburbs.

Earlier Iraqi media reported that the Iraqi premier Nuri al-Maliki would be arriving to the northern city of Mosul to launch the operation.

In the course of the offensive, Iraqi security forces imposed a vehicle curfew in Mosul and closed all borders to prevent militants from escaping.

In other news, the Iraqi government and the Shiite al-Sadr movement agreed to quit the intense fighting that has been going on since March 25 in Baghdad's Shiite Sadr City, al-Arabiya news channel said

However, gunfire was still heard in the Shiite enclave, despite the agreement between the government and Sadrists to stop the armed clashes.

Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has launched a security offensive codenamed Charges of the Knights against militiamen of the Mahdi army loyal to radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

Thousands were killed and wounded during the clashes that lasted for two months in Sadr City, eastern Baghdad. (dpa)