Mosul revolt spreads to town near Syria

In Mosul, carloads of insurgents drove unhindered through parts of the city and attacked security forces on bridges spanning the Tigris River. The fighters barricaded themselves in a police station and then wounded at least 20 Iraqi security commandos, who called for help from a U.S. unit during the ensuing five-hour gun battle.

Responding to a request from the provincial governor, thousands of Kurdish militiamen from outside Mosul began taking up positions in the streets, and residents said they saw vehicles from the Iraqi security forces rumbling in from the south.

The fighting in Mosul, the country's third-largest city, came on the fourth day of an uprising that has devastated the police force there and has created a northern front as the Americans fought in Falluja, about 400 kilometers, or 250 miles, south.

Hundreds of policemen in Mosul fled when attackers with Kalashnikov rifles and rocket-propelled grenades stormed at least six police stations on Thursday. The coordinated assaults took the U.S. military by surprise, and commanders say they are struggling now to root out entrenched guerrilla cells.

"The situation in Mosul is tense, but certainly not desperate," said Brigadier General Carter Ham, commander of Task Force Olympia, the U.S. force charged with controlling northern Iraq. "There is still much work to be done."

"I expect the next few days will still bring some hard fighting," he said.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the most wanted insurgent leader in Iraq, may have moved his new base to Mosul from Falluja, according to a military intelligence report. In recent days, fliers signed by Zarqawi's group have appeared on the streets saying that any looters would be killed.

Guerrilla attacks have also flared in Tal Afar, about 50 kilometers west of Mosul. On Sunday, insurgents laid siege to several police stations in the area, partly demolishing one in a bomb attack, said Lieutenant Colonel Paul Hastings, a spokesman for Task Force Olympia. Frightened residents piled into cars and began fleeing the town.

U.S. soldiers battled an insurgent uprising in Tal Afar in early September and said they had secured the area after killing dozens of fighters, many of whom were believed to have entered from Syria.

The attacks breaking out across northern Iraq underscore a growing problem for U.S. forces: namely, that battlefield victories can be quickly undermined after the Americans leave and weaker Iraqi security forces are left to keep the area.

U.S. soldiers sealed off roads from Tal Afar and searched departing cars.

"The mujahedeen are attacking the Americans, who have been inside the city for two days now," Sabah Muhammad said as he drove from the town with two dozen family members packed into two trucks. "So we must protect our families."

Muhammad said Al Saray, an older part of town, had almost cleared out entirely.

The insurgents began attacking the police stations in Tal Afar right after dawn prayers at the start of Id al-Fitr, the three-day festival marking the end of Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting, said Ahmed Fawzi, director of a local hospital. A group of gunmen raided a prison and let out all the prisoners before bombing the building, he said. They did the same at the Hasan Koy police station.

Hastings said he had no report of prisoners' being set free, although the police station in the village of Afgani had been bombed.

Fawzi, the hospital director, said he had counted two dead and 22 wounded from the fighting on Sunday.

In Mosul, to the east, where carloads of insurgents roamed freely through parts of the city, clashes have ebbed since Thursday.

At noon, guerrillas ambushed a company of Iraqi police commandos as it moved to secure a police station that had been looted Thursday. The security officers were hit by roadside bombs as soon as they crossed to the west bank of the Tigris on their way to the Sheik Fatih police station, Hastings said. Then insurgent snipers opened up from the rooftop of the station.

At least 20 of the officers were wounded. U.S. soldiers arrived in light-armored Stryker vehicles to join the fighting.

It took five hours for the U.S. and Iraqi forces to kill or chase away the insurgents.

"There was a pretty substantial engagement there," Hastings said.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/11/15/news/mosul.html