May 13 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Iraq at 1515 GMT on Tuesday: * denotes new or updated items. * MOSUL - Iraq's Defence Minister Abdel Qader Jassim arrived in Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, to oversee an Iraqi and U.S. military joint operation against al-Qaeda. Five hundred suspects have been arrested since the offensive started on Saturday, the government said. * MOSUL - A roadside bomb killed five Iraqi soldiers and one civilian when it exploded near an army patrol in southwestern Mosul, police and hospital sources said. * BAGHDAD - U.S. forces arrested 19 militants suspected of being from al-Qaeda, including five wanted men, in operations around Iraq on Monday and Tuesday, the U.S. military said. BAGHDAD - Eleven people were killed and 20 wounded in clashes overnight in the Shi'ite district of Sadr City in eastern Baghdad, police and hospital sources said. They gave no details of those killed. The U.S. military said its troops killed at least three militants trying to plant bombs. NEAR MAHMUDIYA - A roadside bomb attack on a police patrol killed one policeman and wounded three others on Monday near Mahmudiya, 30 km (20 miles) south of Baghdad, police said. NEAR BAQUBA - Gunmen abducted six university students from a minibus near Baquba on Monday, police said. Baquba, the capital of Diyala province, is 65 km (42 miles) north of Baghdad. MOSUL - A bomb blast wounded two children in southeastern Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said. BAGHDAD - Gunmen killed an army officer, Brigadier-General Nibras Fadhil Abbas, in a drive-by shooting on Monday in Nisoor square in central Baghdad, police said. BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb wounded five civilians in the Karrada district of central Baghdad, police said. NASSIRIYA - A mortar attack killed a woman and wounded three people including a child in Nassiriya on Monday, police said. Nassiriya is 375 km (235 miles) southeast of Baghdad. (Compiled by Aws Qusay, Editing by Tim Cocks and Robert Woodward)
A portrait of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is planted on soil and rock barricade set by Sunni Muslim gunmen to block the main road to Syrian borders in the Masna'a ...
