Gunfire erupted across the broken road of bomb craters and barbed wire in
northern Iraq, sending a scruffy group of street children running for
shelter.
An Iraqi soldier in his watchtower signalled to several American troops that
he had fired the warning shots at a possible insurgent outside their camp,
one of many joint outposts that are being put up across this ancient but
volatile city.
Five years after the US-led invasion, American forces have yet to bring
security to Mosul, which is now the front line of the fight against al-Qaeda
after President Bush's troop “surge” brought a plunge in violence in Baghdad
and surrounding areas.
A week ago gunmen kidnapped the city's Chaldean Catholic Archbishop, Paulos
Faraj Rahho, killing his driver and two guards in an attack that provoked
international outrage.
American commanders, determined to turn the security situation around, are
building a series of bases and checkpoints throughout Mosul to give US and
Iraqi forces a 24-hour presence. They are also erecting a wall of mud and
earth around the perimeter in an attempt to prevent extremists from driving
weapons in.
Residents, tired of living in fear, just want both sides to stop the shooting
and the bombing so that they can live in peace.
Colonel Michael Bills, the US commander in Mosul, is optimistic that he can
clear the city of insurgents by July, particularly after an initial 90-day
deployment of 900 extra soldiers to his battle space in January was extended
indefinitely.
The extension was “because of the importance of clearing and holding the east
side”, said Colonel Bills, referring to the more upmarket portion of Mosul.
A 1,000-strong squadron from his 3rd Armoured Cavalry Regiment covers the
squalid west side on the opposite bank of the Tigris river, which divides
the city.
Despite the extra American manpower, the campaign for Mosul differs from past
stands against al-Qaeda in Iraq because Iraqi rather than US soldiers are
leading the fight. Iraqi officers say that their ability to operate is being
compromised by a lack of trucks, weapons and ammunition. Inexperience is
also a problem.
In addition, several battalions are disproportionately Kurdish, creating
distrust and at times open hostility among the city's majority Sunni Arab
inhabitants.
The US troops at Combat Outpost Rabi — built in the bombed-out skeleton of a
former municipal garage along a notorious stretch of road in western Mosul —
checked surveillance cameras to see what the Iraqi guard in the watchtower
had been shooting at before they decided it was a false alarm.
Last month told a different story. The soldiers were attacked repeatedly with
bombs, mortar shells and rocket fire as they tried to secure the new base.
They used blast walls and giant blocks of sand to fortify the crumbling
complex, now home to between 40 and 50 Iraqi troops and a rotating unit of
two dozen Americans.
“The enemy is still trying to apply pressure but it does not have the same
freedom to move,” said Captain Justin Harper, 28, from Texas. Camps such as
Rabi enabled US and Iraqi forces to conduct regular joint patrols in hostile
areas, he noted, resulting in a reduction in attacks over recent weeks.
Iraqi soldiers complain, though. about the shortage of combat transport
compared with that of their US partners — who are sometimes forced to drive
them to raids.
They are also outgunned by alQaeda. Limited ammunition means that many Iraqi
forces use the rounds they find in insurgent caches to arm themselves.
“Our equipment is terrible,” grumbled Ahmed Ali Abid, a 22-year-old soldier.
Going on a night operation with Iraqi soldiers, The Times experienced first
hand the limited resources of the fledgeling army, which was started from
scratch after Saddam Hussein's old military was controversially disbanded
after the invasion.
Rattling through the city in the back of an Iraqi Humvee, it was obvious that
there were no boxes of extra ammunition, the armour on the doors looked
worryingly weak and the front windscreen was a web of cracks from previous
bomb blasts and gunshots.
Brigadier-General Nourdeen Hussein Tatar, who led the mission to arrest three
low-level al-Qaeda suspects, said afterwards that he has only 53 combat
vehicles for a brigade of 3,000 men and that 11 of them were damaged.
“If I had all the equipment I needed I could control Mosul within four
months,” he said.
Colonel Bills said that transporting parts up north to fix broken and damaged
vehicles was the key to improving the equipment situation. He also
emphasised that it took years for an army to build a good logistics system
to supply its forces.
Unfortunately, time is in short supply. With only 1,900 American soldiers in
Mosul, which competes with Basra for the title of Iraq's second-largest city
and has a population of about 1.7 million, the US military is relying on
12,000 Iraqi troops and about 9,000 police to win the fight.
In late January Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister, pledged a “decisive
battle” against al-Qaeda in Mosul but American officers see the mission as
more of a continuing campaign. As part of the plan, a Baghdad-style
operations centre, linking the Iraqi police, army and border guards as well
as the US military, was established last month and is due to be fully
operational by April.
Brigadier-General Mutha Habib Jassem, commander of the 2nd Iraqi Army
Division, which covers Mosul, said: “All of the security forces have one
goal — security and democracy. All of us are fighting the insurgency.”
Mosul descended into chaos in late 2004 when the police force temporarily
collapsed in a coup for al-Qaeda and other Islamist groups. US troop levels
were also reduced as the counter-insurgency effort focused in and around
Baghdad.
The city, a melting pot of seven ethno-sects including Sunni Arabs, Kurds and
Christians, finally received special attention late last year when the
military that said its squeeze on central Iraq had forced al-Qaeda north,
triggering an increase in attacks across Ninevah province, of which Mosul is
the capital.
Caught in the middle, families living in bullet-scarred houses describe life
in the city as miserable but they cling to the hope of a brighter future.
“Nobody controls Mosul,” said Razaaq Jerjes, 41, a doctor who gave up a
hospital job two years ago after colleagues were killed. “I thank God that I
am still alive. We live inside a jungle here. The strong eat the weak.”
Swaths of once picturesque streets lie in ruins. The threat of kidnap prevents
many children from going to school. The unemployment rate is up to 70 per
cent, and basic services are poor. The local government is working on
reconstruction projects but efforts are curbed by the continuing security
problems.
“I hated Saddam Hussein because he executed my father but I think things were
better during his time,” said Ahlaam Abid al-Shakour, 37, an accountant.
“All we do now is focus on staying alive.”
Remember this, That without any sure-proof, the US and Britain forcefully, without any UN authorization invaded iraq and Afghanistan in an unprovoked attacked dethrone and executed at will, Sadam Hussein and as well as the Taliban regime, illegitimately took control of its oil fields, for which it raised a false alarm claiming that Sadam's Iraq had WMD's (heinous-Lies) and cause others, without any proper investigation broke down an established system in the name of so-called "demnable-DEMOCRACY and brutal-PEACE. Do you know what you've done, You've just pave the way for more trouble for those who are innocent but sure to suffer the consequences of your failed if not cowardly actions. One more thing, how can you live in peace by destroying others? Is that the way you choose to secure the path to peace and tranquility, certainly not. Talking about so-called "Operation Iraqi Freedom" is that really a freedom or a demnable, disguesting and shameful if not a violent-confused uncertainty.
JDeshield, Paynesville/Monrovia, Liberia