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Vatican City, Nov 13, 2009 / 01:44 pm (CNA).- Catholics in the war-torn Archdiocese of Mosul, Iraq received good news on Friday when Pope Benedict approved Fr. Emil Shimoun Nona as the new Archbishop of Mosul. The archbishop-elect will replace Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho, who was kidnapped by militants last February and found dead two weeks later.The Vatican's press office announced today that the Holy Father “gave his assent to the canonical election by the Synod of Bishops of the Chaldean Church of Fr. Emil Shimoun Nona.” Archbishop-elect Nona, 42, was born in Alqosh, Iraq on November 1, 1967. He...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 1, 2009 – Iraqi forces, with U.S. advisors, in recent days have arrested an alleged terrorist financier and recruiter, as well as five suspects in a roadside bomb network, military officials reported. In Balad, the Iraqi army’s emergency response brigade arrested alleged Khitab Hezbollah financier and recruiter Khalid Masur Ismail in Baghdad’s Sadr City district. Ismail, who also is known as Abu Mustafa, was arrested on a court-issued warrant when he identified himself upon contact and admitted to working as a manager for a security firm alleged to be a front for Khitab Hezbollah. During the operation, Iraqi...

Note: The following text is a quote: MULTI-NATIONAL FORCE-IRAQ PRESS DESK BAGHDAD, Iraq http://www.mnf-iraq.com Press Release A090804-02 August 4, 2009 Iraqi Army, Police and Coalition advisors arrest 10 Ansar Islam operatives BAGHDAD – Mosul Special Weapons and Tactics and Iraqi Army soldiers, with Coalition advisors, conducted a series of raids on July 24 that targeted and successfully captured key leaders and operatives of Ansar al Islam in Mosul. Fakri Hadi Gari, also known as Abu ‘Abbas and Mullah Halgurd, assessed to be the deputy commander for Ansar al Islam was arrested during this raid. He is believed to be responsible...

ST. PAUL (AP) ― Click to enlarge1 of 1 Father Tim Vakoc, who was critically wounded in a roadside bomb attack near Mosul, Iraq in May 2004. CBS Close numSlides of totalImages Related StoriesFamily Fights VA For Pulling Chaplain's Benefits (11/14/2007) Priest Wounded In Iraq Continues Recovery (8/29/2006) Related LinksRead More Minnesota News A Minnesota priest who was gravely wounded by a roadside bomb in Iraq five years ago has died, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis confirmed Sunday. The Rev. Tim Vakoc was 49. He died at a nursing home in suburban New Hope about 8...

MOSUL — Iraqi Police gathered with their counterparts from the Iraqi National Police and Iraqi Army at the 3rd Iraqi Police Division’s new operations center for a situational update briefing on the morning of May 26. The IP realized they could leverage significant operational gains with their own operations center to conduct mission planning and tracking, while working with key personnel from the Iraqi Army and Iraqi National Police. "[The Iraqi Police] recognize that they need to work together with the Iraqi Army and the Iraqi National Police. To do that, they needed a functional operations center from which they...

MOSUL, Iraq, May 21, 2009 – More than 1,000 Iraqi police recruits stood at attention on the Public Service Academy parade field here as dignitaries and guests gathered to celebrate their graduation from basic police training May 11. Their graduation signifies Ninevah province's compliance with an Iraqi Interior Ministry directive requiring all currently employed Iraqi police officers to be formally trained by June. Ninevah Gov. Atheel al-Nujaifi and Khalid Hussein Ali al-Hamdani, general director of police, watched the newly trained officers use smoke grenades, blank ammunition and pyrotechnics in a building-clearing demonstration. Guests watched a series of hand-to-hand combat...

A man wearing an Iraqi army uniform has shot dead two US soldiers and injured three others in a military base south of the northern city of Mosul. The US army said the man was also killed in the incident but gave little information about the attack. But Iraqi military reports said he was a soldier also working as an Imam for at a mosque on the base. No motive was given for the attack but Mosul is seen as the last remaining urban stronghold of al-Qaeda in Iraq. The US army said it had received reports of "small arms...

Gunman in Iraqi uniform kills 2 U.S. soldiers BAGHDAD - An attacker wearing an Iraqi army uniform shot to death two U.S. soldiers outside the volatile northern city of Mosul on Saturday, the U.S. military said. "We have reports of a small arms fire attack in Hamam al-Alil, 12.5 miles south of Mosul," said Major Derrick Cheng, a spokesman for the U.S. military in Mosul and surrounding Nineveh province. "There are initial reports of two U.S. soldiers killed in the attack ... According to initial reports, an individual dressed in an Iraqi army uniform fired on the coalition forces and...

WASHINGTON, April 14, 2009 – U.S. soldiers could remain in Mosul, Iraq, past June 30, when Iraqi forces are scheduled to assume full security responsibilities for the entire country, a senior U.S. military commander in the area said today. Army Col. Gary Volesky, commander of the 1st Cavalry Division’s 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, said in a video news conference from Iraq that the Iraqi government will make that determination. “We are conducting an assessment right now with our Iraqi counterparts to determine what the way ahead is for security in Mosul,” Volesky said. “If the Iraqi government believes...

Five US soldiers have been killed in a truck bombing in Mosul, Iraq, according to the American military.

March 2009 saw the fewest number of U.S. casualties in Iraq since the beginning of the war. Nine American men and women died in Iraq last month -- five of those troops were killed in non-hostile action. And to add one more interesting fact, one of the four Americans killed in hostile action was a woman, who was serving at a Forward Operating Base in Mosul. July 2008 was the second lowest month for casualties in Iraq, with 13 total. March 2009 was the first month where U.S. casualties were in the single digits since the beginning of the war.

A group of men from the 7 Nissan neighborhood in northern Mosul shovel the trash that has accumulated in empty lots and along curbsides. Many neighborhoods in Mosul are undergoing clean-up projects to beautify the city's streets. Photo by Sharla Perrin, 1st Cavalry Division Public Affairs. MOSUL — In the past, this city had often been referred to as the last haven of insurgent activity in Iraq.  However, as security has improved, the residents are working to beautify the city they love so much. Col. Greg Maxton, the deputy commanding officer of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division,...

Iraqi policemen shot dead four US soldiers and their local interpreter in the main northern city of Mosul on Tuesday, an interior ministry official said. "Four US soldiers and their Iraqi interpreter were killed by two Iraqi policemen who opened fire at them in the Dawasa district of (central) Mosul and then fled," the official told AFP, declining to be named. The incident took place during a US army visit to the Mosul headquarters of the Iraqi police in charge of protecting the city's bridges, police said. The bullet-riddled body of the interpreter was taken to the local mortuary. It...

MOSUL, Iraq (AP) -- Iraqi Christians still reeling from a string of murders last fall find themselves caught in the middle of a power struggle between Kurds and Sunni Arabs that was fueled by this weekend's elections. The minority community has faced years of violence and intimidation from al-Qaida in Iraq and other Islamic extremists. In the northern city of Mosul and surrounding areas, many also fear the Kurds want incorporate parts of the area into their semiautonomous region in northern Iraq. The issue came to the fore in Saturday's vote for members of ruling councils in most of Iraq's...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) -- Blasts at Baghdad's police academy and in the northern city of Mosul have killed 30 people and wounded dozens more, hours after a roadside bomb wounded a senior Iraqi official, police said. Violence has fallen sharply over the last year as successive security crackdowns dealt insurgent groups a heavy blow, but officials say militants are now concentrating their efforts on attention-grabbing attacks ahead of elections next year. People were queuing at the back entrance of the police academy in east Baghdad to enroll when a car bomb exploded, followed minutes later by a suicide bomb attack, police...

BAGHDAD – Two American servicemen were killed Tuesday when a gunman in an Iraqi army uniform opened fire while they were distributing humanitarian aid in northern Iraq, the U.S. military said. It was the third such shooting in the Mosul area in less than a year purportedly involving Iraqi soldiers, raising concerns about infiltration of the Iraqi security forces in one of the most dangerous areas in Iraq. The shooting, southwest of Mosul near the Syrian border, came on the eve of a parliament vote on a pact that would allow American troops to remain in Iraq three more years....

ISTANBUL, November 14 (Compass Direct News) – In this Turkish city’s working-class neighborhood of Kurtulus, Arabic can be heard on the streets, signs are printed in the Arabic alphabet and Iraqis congregate in tea shops. In 99-percent Muslim Turkey, most of these Iraqis are not Muslims. And they are not in Turkey by choice. They are Christian refugees who fled their homeland to escape the murderous violence that increasingly has been directed at them. It is hard to tell how many of Mosul’s refugees from the recent wave of attacks have made their way to Istanbul, but finding these residents...

MOSUL (Reuters) -- Gunmen have killed two Christian sisters and wounded their mother in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, which has seen thousands of Christians flee their homes because of violence in recent weeks, police said. Some 2,000 families, an estimated 12,000 people, fled Mosul after a campaign of threats and attacks against the Christian community last month, although many have since returned home, the United Nations refugee agency says. In the latest incident, gunmen killed one woman outside her home, then stormed the house, killing her sister and wounding their mother.

Low Return On Absentee Ballots Expected; Some Officers Refuse To Vote To Underscore Political Neutrality. Soldiers must request by mail an absentee ballot from the local election district where they last lived. Then they are sent a paper ballot to fill out and mail back. Some soldiers said they never got ballots. The number of absentee military ballots applied for that ultimately get counted is consistently low. In the last federal election, only about 30 percent of overseas military ballots were tallied...

One grey-haired woman understands more than most the fear that has gripped Iraq's beleaguered Christian community over the past month. Her brother, Bashar al-Hazim, was among the first to be murdered in a wave of targeted killings that has forced more than 2,000 Christian families to flee the northern city of Mosul. Masked gunmen walked up to Mr Hashim as he stood with his two children outside their house in the east-side of Mosul in late September. They demanded to see his identity card, confirmed he was Christian and executed the 41-year-old on the spot. "I could have died when...

Who is behind the attacks on Christians in Mosul? The Iraqi government says it does not believe that this is al Qaeda, while media sources note that most of the people struck lived in the area controlled by Kurdish militias. The Kurdish regional government denounces the "malign efforts" of those who want to "conceal the truly guilty," denounced as "religious fanatics," and "orders" all ministers to help those who have been struck. The exchange of accusations over responsibility for the attacks against Christians in Mosul seems to confirm the at least predominantly political nature of what is taking place in...

At least 1,300 Christian families have fled the Iraqi city of Mosul after an upsurge of violence against them by Muslim extremists, the authorities say. Thousands of people have sought refuge in outlying villages since last week after a dozen Christians were murdered, said local official Jawdat Ismail. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has vowed to protect the community. About a third of Iraq's estimated 800,000 Christians are believed to have fled abroad since the invasion of 2003. Mr Ismail, head of Mosul's bureau of displaced people, said food and other aid is being distributed to those who have recently...

You all have probably heard about the grave situation in Mosul, Iraq. The email below came today from a JETS graduate living there. Please pray for our brothers and sisters. (JETS is the Jordan Evangelical Training School where Korky and Anni's friends are working, in Amman). Please pray for them and for their family back home who are also suffering in various ways - health, local fire risk, etc. + Please lift up their Iraqi friend (prof at JETS) and his family. They continue to have serious VISA issues and some things have come up today--please pray for God's protection...

BAGHDAD — A church in the northern city of Mosul was bombed Tuesday as Christians continued to leave the city to escape recent violence that has been directed at them. Several church leaders accused the Iraqi government of trying to cover up the extent of the problems facing Christians there and of overstating its success in improving security in Mosul, one of the country’s most volatile cities. As the government announced plans on Tuesday to send officials to Mosul to assist the Christian community, the anti-American Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, who is believed to be in Iran, sent some of...

    "Now the last safe haven for Christians is gone," said Canon Andrew White, the vicar of St. George's church in Baghdad. During the past week, twelve Christians have been killed and more than 3,000 have left the city of Mosul, once considered a safe zone for persecuted Iraqi Christians.   Mosul, on the plain of Nineveh in northern Iraq, has long been home to one of the largest remaining Christian communities in the nation. Furthermore, in recent years the city has been a destination for persecuted Christians.   Unfortunately, the safety of Mosul was only relative to...

BAGHDAD — Hundreds of terrified Christian families have fled Mosul to escape extremist attacks that have increased despite months of U.S. and Iraqi military operations to secure the northern Iraqi city, political and religious officials said Saturday. Some 3,000 Christians have fled the city over the past week alone in a "major displacement," said Duraid Mohammed Kashmoula, the governor of northern Iraq's Ninevah province. He said most have left for churches, monasteries and the homes of relatives in nearby Christian villages and towns. "The Christians were subjected to abduction attempts and paid ransom, but now they are subjected to a...

BAGHDAD — Christians in Mosul are fleeing their homes after a spate of killings this week that left 12 Christians dead in one of the largest Christian communities in Iraq . The killings follow large protests by the community last month against the passage of the provincial elections law. An article that would give representation to Christians and other minorities was removed from the law before its passage. Now the last safe haven for Christians is gone, said Canon Andrew White the vicar of St. George's church in Baghdad . After a spree of killings and forced evictions of Iraqi...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 5, 2008 – A terrorist detonated a suicide vest Oct. 5 in Mosul as coalition forces were trying to capture a wanted man. Coaliton forces entered a building looking for the man and were shot at by enemy fighters. One man in the building detonated the vest he was wearing. No coalition force injuries were reported. Five suspected terrorists, along with three women and three children, were killed. Forces searched the building and found a weapons cache holding various small arms weapons and explosives. In other operations today, forces near Baghdad captured two wanted men and detained two...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 30, 2008 – Coalition forces captured three wanted men and detained eight additional suspected terrorists yesterday and today during operations targeting al-Qaida in Iraq in and around Baghdad and Mosul, military officials reported. Southeast of Mosul yesterday, coalition forces targeting al-Qaida communication networks captured one wanted man believed to be a courier for the terrorist organization. The man, who identified himself to coalition forces during the operation, is also believed to have connections to al-Qaida communication lines coming out of Mosul. Today in Mosul, a coalition force operation targeting a wanted man believed to be a foreign terrorist...

Mosul (AsiaNews) - The Iraqi Christian community is again in the sights of Islamic fundamentalists in Mosul: today news came of the death of a 65-year-old doctor, Tariq Qattan, kidnapped recently by a terrorist group. AsiaNews sources say that his family had paid a ransom of 20,000 U.S. dollars. But it was not enough money to free Tariq Qattan, one of the many Christians kidnapped by fundamentalists for extortion. Also in Mosul, two days ago - although the news has just been released today - another Christian, Nafi Haddad, was kidnapped and killed. It is not yet known whether or...

American troops have foiled an apparent plot to tunnel under the Mosul provincial hall and destroy the building with explosives, officials said Tuesday. According to U.S. military officials in northern Iraq, at least two alleged al-Qaida in Iraq members were detained Monday in connection with the plot. The two men were detained "during a patrol that led to a search of a bakery" near the provincial hall, according to a news release. "Soldiers were acting on a report regarding a planned bomb attack against Provincial Hall by way of a tunnel system," the release read. Mosul has been described by...

MOSUL, IRAQ: The Battle for Mosul over the past several years has worked as a microcosm for the larger Iraqi conflict, with Coalition and Iraqi forces successfully imposing its will only after Al Qaeda and other insurgent groups held large parts of the city and region for long periods. Control over the city of 1.9 million people and the surrounding Ninewa province have been lost to Coalition and government forces twice since 2003. Only a successful security operation in May has brought attacks to their lowest recorded levels since the conflict began. Operation “Lion’s Roar” in May involved 5,000 Coalition...

An Iraqi policeman stands guard outside a voter registration center in Mosul as US and Iraqi troops enter. When Iraqi Army Brigadier General Noor Aldeen visited his old secondary school in northern Mosul this week, he had little time to reminisce about placing first in spelling and arithmetic. His former school in the neighborhood of Al Nomaniya is an election registration site for upcoming regional elections in October, making it a popular place for a terrorist attack in the coming weeks. Almost all of the 57 registration sites in Iraq’s third-largest city are at primary and secondary schools --...

What would happen if the U.S. won a war but the media didn't tell the American public? Apparently, we have to rely on a British newspaper for the news that we've defeated the last remnants of al-Qaida in Iraq. London's Sunday Times called it "the culmination of one of the most spectacular victories of the war on terror." A terrorist force that once numbered more than 12,000, with strongholds in the west and central regions of Iraq, has over two years been reduced to a mere 1,200 fighters, backed against the wall in the northern city of Mosul.

The US military in Iraq says a militant killed on Tuesday has been positively identified as the leader of al-Qaeda in the city of Mosul. It said the man - identified by a pseudonym, Abu Khalaf - had co-ordinated and ordered many attacks. He was shot dead by American troops during a raid on a building in Mosul. US and Iraqi forces have been carrying out an offensive in the city for more than a month, in an attempt to drive out al-Qaeda in Iraq from Mosul. The city, US and Iraqi officials say, is al-Qaeda's last urban stronghold in...

MOSUL, Iraq — As priests do everywhere, Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho, the leader of the Chaldean Catholics in this ancient city, gathered alms at Sunday Mass. But for years the money, a crumpled pile of multicolored Iraqi dinars, went into an envelope and then into the hand of a man who had threatened to kill him and his entire congregation. “What else could he do?” asked Ghazi Rahho, a cousin of the archbishop. “He tried to protect the Christian people.” But American military officials now say that as security began to improve around Iraq last year, Archbishop Rahho, 65, stopped...

Bill Roggio's images over at Long War Journal.Org were used in an AQI video recently released. The images of the aftermath of a suicide bombing in Mosul in March of 2008 were originally posted on Long War Journal.Org, as a part of Bill Roggio's reporting. They can be viewed here. Apparently it was these same pictures that caught the eye of Al Qaeda in Iraq. According to LWJ's report on this account. "The 38-minute-long video, titled "The Islamic State is Meant to Stay," was produced by Al Furqan, al Qaeda's media arm in Iraq. Al Furqan has released few videos...

WASHINGTON, June 24, 2008 – Coalition forces killed a senior al-Qaida in Iraq leader and three other attackers today and detained more than a dozen suspects in various recent operations. Coalition forces killed the al-Qaida in Iraq “emir” of Mosul and three other attackers. During the engagement, one man was killed while attempting to detonate a suicide vest he was wearing, and another attacker, a woman, was killed as she tried to detonate the same vest on the dead man. Southwest of Mosul, coalition forces detained two terrorism suspects, and two others were captured in Tikrit, north of Baghdad. In...

US Special Operations Forces scored a major victory in Mosul today. US forces killed al Qaeda's emir, or leader, of the northern city during a raid on a safe house. The emir, who has not been named, was killed after a Special Operations Forces team form Task Force 88, the hunter-killer teams assigned to take down terrorists in Iraq, stormed a building in Mosul. The commandos opened fire after one of the terrorists attempted to detonate his suicide vest was shot and another reached for a pistol. A woman with the group attempted to detonate the vest on the dead...

US soldiers in Baghdad captured an Iraqi arms dealer and "assassination squad" leader responsible for trafficking Shi'ite extremists in and out of neighboring Iran for training, the military said Sunday. The arrest reinforced long-standing US allegations that Iran arms, trains and funds Shi'ite Muslim militiamen inside Iraq - charges that Teheran denies. It also coincided with a two-day visit to Iran by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, his second such trip in a year. The Iraqi prime minister, himself a Shi'ite, is struggling to keep Washington happy while reassuring Iran, the largest Shi'ite nation, that a proposed US-Iraqi security agreement...

Cruise the streets of Mosul, and you’ll see plenty of men wearing one of the Iraqi army’s handful of motley uniforms. You’ll see a similarly large number of men wearing the Iraqi police uniform. You’ll probably even run into several American soldiers wearing their distinctive digital camouflage. But what you won’t see is the tan, buttoned-down shirts worn by many "Sons of Iraq" volunteers. That’s because Mosul, unlike so many other parts of Iraq, does not use "Sons of Iraq" — the term the U.S. military uses for armed civilians paid by the U.S. to guard their own neighborhoods. Those...

MOSUL, Iraq, June 3, 2008 – The residents of Yarimjah, a neighborhood in southern Mosul, were apprehensive when Iraqi National Police officers arrived at 4 a.m. May 24. They had heard many rumors about the national police from neighbors and television. Iraqi National Police Col. Fasial Majed Muhsen listens to concerns of a villager during security operations in Yarimjah, Iraq. Iraqi National Police photo by Lt. Col. Mohammed  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. What the neighborhood residents experienced was unexpected. The 2nd Battalion, 6th National Police Brigade, under the command of Col. Fasial Majed Muhsen, moved into the...

American troops grabbed two al-Qaida in Iraq bombing suspects and a Shiite militia leader Tuesday in separate raids north and south of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.The command also said U.S. soldiers killed four other suspects a day earlier after coming under fire from machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades in Shiite sections of the capital. The troops seized dozens of rifles and several rounds of ammunition, the statement said.One of the two al-Qaida suspects, who was captured with four aides in Mosul, is believed to have overseen security for the group's branch in that northern city, the military said. Mosul...

THERE'S BEEN a relative lull in news coverage and debate about Iraq in recent weeks -- which is odd, because May could turn out to have been one of the most important months of the war. While Washington's attention has been fixed elsewhere, military analysts have watched with astonishment as the Iraqi government and army have gained control for the first time of the port city of Basra and the sprawling Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City, routing the Shiite militias that have ruled them for years and sending key militants scurrying to Iran. At the same time, Iraqi and U.S....

Don't look now, but the U.S.-backed government and army may be winning the war.[From the Washington Post!] THERE'S BEEN a relative lull in news coverage and debate about Iraq in recent weeks -- which is odd, because May could turn out to have been one of the most important months of the war. While Washington's attention has been fixed elsewhere, military analysts have watched with astonishment as the Iraqi government and army have gained control for the first time of the port city of Basra and the sprawling Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City, routing the Shiite militias that have ruled...

BAGHDAD — Sunni insurgents converted a water tanker into a Trojan Horse to mount a surprise attack on an Iraqi police checkpoint near Saddam Hussein’s birthplace of Awja, the police said Thursday. But the police responded with heavy fire, and in the end, 14 of the attackers were killed, while two officers were seriously injured. The attackers hid inside a split-level Mercedes water truck originally built to carry drinking water and cattle, which had been modified to hide more than a dozen gunmen, a police spokesman said in Tikrit.After the truck approached the checkpoint near Awja, where Mr.Hussein is also...

WASHINGTON, May 28, 2008 – Last week, Iraq experienced the lowest level of “security incidents” since March 2004, a reduction that military officials attribute in part to improvements in Iraqi security forces. “The collective efforts … to increase the capacity of the Iraqi security forces is a key part of the reason why we saw last week the lowest level of security incidents in Iraq the past four years,” Army Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner, a Multinational Force Iraq spokesman, said this morning during a news conference in Baghdad. “It is also why we are seeing Iraqi citizens increasingly supporting their...

Ata Taha tied the knot with his university sweetheart in a popular park and traditional meeting point for lovers in Iraq's northern city of Mosul -- but only after Al-Qaeda went on the retreat. "My family had advised me to have a private wedding or celebrate abroad but I stood my ground," the 26-year-old said proudly. "I got my wish -- I married my colleague and we did so in public."

Al-Qaida fighters and other Sunni insurgents have largely scattered from the northern city of Mosul in the face of a U.S.-Iraqi sweep, fleeing to desert areas further south, an Iraqi commander said Sunday. He vowed the forces will not allow them to regroup. The U.S. military said al-Qaida in Iraq was "off-balance and on the run" but remains a very lethal threat, tempering remarks by the U.S. ambassador a day earlier that the terror network was closer than ever to being defeated. The comments came amid a flurry of attacks in Baghdad and other areas, most likely attributable to Sunni...

Violence in Iraq has fallen to its lowest level in more than four years, figures released by the US military showed on Saturday, but officials said progress was still fragile and reversible. Iraqi security officials said an offensive against al Qaeda in the northern city of Mosul, which the US military says is the Sunni Islamist group's last major urban stronghold, had wiped out most of the insurgent network.