BAGHDAD, June 11 (Xinhuanet) -- Iraqi Interior Minister Baqer Jabur Solagh said Saturday that insurgent attacks have decreased in Baghdad as the massive Operation Lightening continued.

    "The Operation Lightening strained the chain on the terrorists and pushed them outside the capital," Solagh told reporters in a news conference in Baghdad.

    The number of car bombings have dropped from 12 or 14 a day to 1 or 2 a day since the operation was launched in late May involving 40,000 Iraqi security forces in Baghdad, with the aim of cracking down on rising insurgencies, said the minister.

    "There is no limited time for the security operation but I can say that I need six months more to impose security in all over Iraq," Solagh explained.

    During the ongoing operation, which is the largest in Baghdad since the US-led invasion in 2003 carried out by Iraqi security forces, 1,318 suspected insurgents have been captured, including eight suspected Arab fighters, Solagh told reporters, adding that 36 other insurgents have been killed during direct clashes in the capital.

    The Iraqi security forces have defused eight car bombs ready to be detonated in Baghdad, whereas 11 others have detonated during the operation along with nine roadside bombs, said the minister.

    Four policemen and soldiers have been killed and 17 others wounded during the operation, while 35 civilians were killed and 78 others wounded, he added.

    As for the car bombing in a street of a mainly Shiite district in northern Baghdad Friday night, Solagh said, "an hour after midnight, our security forces captured eight of the attackers."

    That attack killed 10 people and wounded 27 others.

    The Iraqi security forces have expanded its operations to include areas south of Baghdad in Latifiyah and Jurf al-Sakhar, tofollow the remnants of the insurgents, the minister said.

    Responding to accusation that the Shiite-led government is targeting the Sunni community with the Operation Lightening, Solagh said, "The security operation has a trio political leadership, two Sunnis and a Shiite, and its field leadership is comprised of seven generals, five of them Sunnis."

    "The Iraqi forces fought and will fight all the outlaws whoeverthey are," he vowed.

    Operation Lightening was launched to curb the new wave of violence that ravaged the country since a Shiite-dominated government was sworn in on April 28, during which more than 700 people have been killed across the country. Enditem