Baghdad (NINA)- Premier Nouri al-Maliki's arrival at Mosul city to oversee Nineveh operations, security development in Sadr City and warnings of a possible food crisis in Iraq were the main topics covered by Iraqi newspapers on Thursday.

Nineveh operations
Over the arrival of Premier Nouri al-Maliki to Mosul last Wednesday to oversee the third phase of Nineveh security operation Enforcing the Law -dubbed Um el-Rabeyein-, al-Sabah said al-Maliki asserted that the main target of the military operation in Nineveh is to "end the sufferance of civilians and provide them with basic services," while the ministry of interior has stated that the upcoming phase of the operations "aim at finally purging the province of gunmen groups and terrorists." The paper said the prime minister has called Mosul inhabitants to "real participation in building the new Iraq, peaceful co-existence and not to follow deceptive religious Fatwas."

Sadr City
Over the Sadr City crisis, al-Muwatin quoted Maj. Gen. Qasim Ata, Baghdad operations' spokesman, as saying during a press conference last Wednesday that Sadr City ceasefire agreement has not yet been implemented ,expressing hope to reach maximum coordination to overcome obstacles hindering its implementation. The paper also reported a statement by Salah al-Ubaydi, spokesman for Cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, that there was lack of commitment in adhering to the ceasefire agreement.

Al-Ittihad, for its part, quoted Salah al-Ubaydi as saying that the Sadr Trend was seeking to end "armed appearances, despite the provocative practices of security forces in Sadr City and other areas, which undermined people's confidence in government's seriousness in implementing the ceasefire agreement."

Food crisis
Azzaman covered the news over a possible "unprecedented food shortage in Iraq," quoting the National Iraqi Slate's MP Jamal al-Battekh, member of the parliamentary water and agriculture committee, as describing Iraq's current agricultural situation as "real catastrophe." Al-Battekh said the scarcity of water resources and draught have badly affected thousands of acres of crops, as well as the national livestock wealth, to be added to reduction in quantities of river waters reaching Iraq due to Turkey's establishment of huge dams on Tigris and Euphrates riverbeds, leading in future to "unprecedented food shortage." /End/