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American
troops and Iraqi security forces launched a major
operation to regain control of Mosul yesterday,
after a week of lawlessness which saw large parts of
Iraq's third city fall under the control of
militants determined to open a new front in the
insurgency.
As hundreds of US troops targeted western parts of
the city, American jets roared overhead.
Mortar attacks from insurgents near the centre
killed three people and wounded 25 others, and there
were also attacks on the offices of Kurdish
political parties.
The violence in Mosul is part of a general wave of
guerrilla activity throughout Sunni Arab areas of
Iraq triggered by the US-led assault on Falluja.
A security source in Mosul estimated the number of
insurgents in the city to be between 1,500 and
2,000, many of them having fled the south in recent
weeks.
He said that there was growing evidence that a
"resurgent Ba'ath party, and a number of small
Islamic extremist groups from places like Falluja"
were behind the well-orchestrated attacks, which he
likened to a coup.
Yesterday, more than 1,000 American soldiers and a
few hundred Iraqi national guards took part in the
offensive to recapture nine police stations seized
by rebels or abandoned by police during last week's
uprising.
A unit of police special commandos was also
involved.
"It's a significant operation to secure police
stations in the area and make sure they can be put
to use again," said Angela Bowman, a spokeswoman for
US forces in the north.
Five bridges spanning the river Tigris were closed
and residents stayed indoors as US troops combed
suspected rebel areas on the western side of the
city.
"Some of those stations are in neighbourhoods where
there has been insurgent activity and presence,"
Captain Bowman said. "We are now moving through the
neighbourhoods."
By the start of the 4pm-to-6am curfew, imposed amid
the chaos of last week, several police stations had
been secured with "very little resistance".
Reports said three police stations under the control
of insurgents were blown up yesterday morning by
militants before they left.
The US military said the operation would continue
until all police stations had been secured and the
insurgents defeated.
But with Falluja no longer the focus of the
insurgency, the task will not be easy.
Local Iraqi police have been told to stay off the
streets because of concerns that police uniforms and
cars were in the hands of the rebels.
But if some police were overwhelmed during last
week's violence, others reportedly took off their
uniforms and joined the insurgents.
The police chief, Muhammad Khairy al-Barhawi, who
was sacked, has since been arrested. "We believe he
was with them [the insurgents]," said an official in
the Mosul governor's office.
In the latest of a series of attacks on Kurdish
targets in the city, a number of peshmerga were
injured while driving in the northern Masarif
neighbourhood of Mosul.
Also yesterday, insurgents attacked offices
belonging to one of the two main Kurdish parties,
the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. In the worst
incident, the PUK office in the eastern side of the
river was attacked by four men in a car.
Salih Ahmed, a PUK representative, said rebels had
attacked the checkpoint near his office. He said
three of the attackers had been killed and one
wounded and captured.
The injured attacker had been taken to the PUK
headquarters in the al-Tamim district for
interrogation.
Earlier in the day, the PUK compound in the eastern
part of the city had come under heavy mortar fire.
Peshmerga countered with large-calibre machine guns.
On Friday, over 100 insurgents attacked the compound
for two hours with rocket-propelled grenades and
mortars, said Sadi Ahmed Pire, the PUK chief in
Mosul.
"We killed 16 of them, and took no injuries," Mr
Pire said.
One of the attackers was found carrying a large
blood-stained knife.
A similar knife was found inside the attacker's car,
as was a video of militants using the knife to
behead an Iraqi who worked as a translator for US
forces in the city.
"Islamic militants and Ba'athists are trying to
provoke a civil war between Arabs and Kurds," said
Mr Pire. Kurds account for around 20% of the city's
1.7 million people.
Smaller minority groups, such as Christian, Yezidi
and Turkomen, have also been attacked, he said.
Mr Pire said a new generation of Ba'ath party
activists had targeted Mosul as the best place for a
comeback.
"We must never allow them to take root," he said.
Mosul, which has a majority Sunni Arab population,
was a stronghold of the former regime and provided
thousands of officers for Saddam's army and security
apparatus.
http://www.guardian.co.uk
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