U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Mark Hertling, commander of operations in the north of Iraq, said the number of roadside bomb attacks in the north is down from an average of 900 per month in February to around 550 for May.

"And that's directly related to the improved capability of the Iraqi security forces, the contributions of the Sons of Iraq, the psyche of the Iraqi people and many of the fighters who have been fighting us just tired, quite frankly, of fighting," he told reporters in a news briefing.

He attributed the drop in overall violence to the capture of "level-one and level-two (al-Qaida) fighters throughout the north" -- level one being foot soldiers and level two consisting of command level operatives.

Iraqi security forces operating in the area detained some 1,200 fighters during initial operations, of which about 200 remain in custody, Hertling said.

Describing Mosul as a "stronghold for the Iraqi security forces," Hertling said with a new police academy in Diyala province, Iraqi security forces can expect to bring about 17,000 policemen to duty in the north in the coming months, as well as some 32,000 members of the Sunni paramilitary group, Sons of Iraq.

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