New Insurgency
Confronts US Forces
By Rory McCarthy
& Michael Howard
12 November, 2004
The
Guardian
US
troops were drawn into a new offensive in the northern Iraqi city of
Mosul yesterday to tackle a tide of insurgency unchecked by the military
assault on Falluja.
In Baghdad at least
17 Iraqis were killed in a suicide car bombing as gunmen set up checkpoints
on roads in the west of the capital and fought battles with US troops.
Rebels also took
to the streets of the northern town of Baiji, home to Iraq's main refinery,
clashing with security forces.
The violence suggests
the four-day operation in Falluja may have cleared out the most important
insurgent stronghold in Iraq, but has done little to curb the insurgency.
For two days insurgents
have defied a curfew to rampage through Mosul, attacking or setting
fire to at least seven police stations as well as government buildings.
Masked gunmen stole
bullet-proof jackets and Kalashnikov rifles from police stations and
were roaming the city centre yesterday setting fire to police cars and
taking control of bridges. The five bridges over the Tigris were later
closed to civilian traffic.
At one stage a group
tried to storm an office of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of
the two major Kurdish parties, and fought gunbattles with Kurdish guards.
Mosul's television channel went off air for an hour and the US military
admitted the Iraqi police were unable to handle the crisis. At least
five Iraqi national guardsmen and a civilian have been killed and a
dozen injured.
By 1pm soldiers
from the US 25th Infantry Division and a team of Iraqi national guardsmen
were called in to launch "offensive operations" in south-east
and south-west Mosul against "known concentrations of insurgents".
A senior Kurdish
official in Mosul said he believed the gunmen were militants loyal to
the wanted Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and former Ba'athists. He
said the men had arrived three days ago from Falluja and Samarra, another
troubled Sunni town.
The official, who
declined to be named, said: "They are working together and know
what they are doing. They have had a lot of notice about the Falluja
assault, and were prepared to move the fight."
Residents said there
had been explosions and heavy gunfire from assault rifles and rocket-propelled
grenades.
"I have been
inside my house for 24 hours and am too frightened to go out,"
said Shereen Hawleri, a Kurdish resident. "I think they could turn
on the Kurds next."
Since the start
of the Falluja offensive on Sunday night, attacks have taken place across
Sunni areas in central and northern Iraq in towns such as Samarra, Baiji,
Baquba, Tikrit, Ramadi, Hawija and now Mosul. The violence in Mosul
has been the worst since the invasion began and a sign of the growing
influence of Sunni militants.
"The [insurgent]
activities have now spread to the borders with the Kurdish self-rule
area, and are threatening Kurdish and other minorities in the region,"
said the official.
The Kurdish governor
of Kirkuk, a disputed city to the north-east, survived an assassination
attempt yesterday when a car bomb exploded as his convoy passed.
Abdulrahman Mustafa
was not hurt, but six members of his personal security detail and eight
civilians were hurt, according to Arif Qurbany, the director of a local
TV station.
"The situation
in the city is very tense," he said. "The Kurds here believe
that Arab militants are deliberately targeting them just for being Kurds."
Last night Kurdish
leaders in Arbil and Sulaymaniya, inside the Kurdish self-rule region,
said they were preparing Kurdish troops in the national guard to restore
order in Mosul and Kirkuk in coordination with the US military.
"We cannot
stand by and let minorities be attacked, as they were under Saddam,"
said a military commander in Sulaymaniya. But the deployment of Kurdish
fighters in Kirkuk would be sensitive.
A Baghdad centre
car bomb killed at least 17 and wounded 30. It also destroyed 11 cars
and brought down a building.
The bomb detonated
at 11.15am, moments after a US convoy had passed in a crowded high street.