Posted on 08/08/2005 4:11:05 AM PDT by Wiz
MOSUL, Iraq - There's one clear sign that life in the Sunni Arab-dominated western half of this city is changing for the better — children are again playing soccer at night. The reason: fewer insurgent attacks.
The U.S. military says there were fewer bombings and mortar attacks in July than any month since October.
A 50-percent drop in attacks in western Mosul over the past eight months is a marked improvement from the days when U.S. troops routinely had to call in airstrikes and repel synchronized attacks.
But that doesn't mean violence has been eradicated. Though attacks in July were noticeably down, western Mosul still endured over 50 shootings and roadside bombings, the U.S military said.
Soldiers say they're close to solidifying gains and making further progress — if the flow of foreign fighters can be blocked so that insurgent ranks are not quickly replaced. U.S. commanders say they've nearly uprooted the top insurgent network that steered the city toward chaos last November.
U.S. officials attribute the recent gains to the thousands of patrols and raids mounted since Saddam Hussein's regime collapsed in 2003. They contend that nascent local Iraqi forces could be ready to face the insurgency on their own in six to 12 months, though residents remain wary about a force that relies so heavily on the U.S. military.
But American officials say soldiers are now engaging the local population more than before.
"If you're out there just driving around, you're wasting gas," Army Lt. Col. Michael Kurilla, who commands the 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment that oversees the area, told two new soldiers. "If you're not talking to (civilians), the terrorists are."
Insurgent missteps have also helped the Americans.
In February, U.S. soldiers seized a homemade video of insurgent leaders at a large meeting. Those in the video became a target list of people who have since been mostly captured or killed. The new network that replaced the old has little combat experience and is far less effective, Kurilla said.
Progress in Mosul has come at a high cost: 11 soldiers from the 1st Battalion have been killed, and over 150 have received Purple Hearts for wounds. Dozens have decided not to re-enlist in the Army, and about a quarter of one Iraqi battalion — over 180 soldiers — have been killed or seriously wounded.
Concerns about foreign fighters and outsiders entering the city were great enough for the U.S. military to recently send bulldozers around the city to build a sand berm.
Military officials concede the berm's current height — only 3 feet in some places — will not stop most illicit movement, but they say it may help funnel some traffic through city checkpoints.
U.S. soldiers were also helped by the protection of what some consider the U.S. Army's best vehicle for urban combat — the Stryker combat vehicle.
In western Mosul alone there have been some 320 roadside bomb attacks in less than a year, according to military figures, most of which caused little damage to the Strykers. Kurilla estimates that five times as many of his soldiers may have been killed if the Strykers were not in use.
Other factors helped trim the attacks, including the Jan. 30 elections.
"There was a perception of power that the enemy had, and the elections unveiled that off them," said Spc. Jason Reed of Spokane, Wash.
ping
Soldiers say they're close to solidifying gains and making further progress — if the flow of foreign fighters can be blocked so that insurgent ranks are not quickly replaced
Letter to Zarqawi Decries Terror Leaders
Asharq Alawsat 8/7/05
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1458805/posts
BAGHDAD, Iraq, AP - A letter allegedly written by an insurgent to the head of Al-Qaida in Iraq complained of the lack of leadership in the northern terrorist cell in Mosul, according to excerpts provided by the U.S. military Saturday.
The letter, written to Jordanian leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi by a fighter calling himself Abu Zayd, was discovered by U.S. forces during a raid on an insurgent safe house in Mosul on July 27, the U.S command said. During the raid, six suspects were detained.
He complains that the Mosul leadership of the Al-Qaida in Iraq branch is incompetent, lacks training, and does not collaborate. The letter's authenticity could not be independently verified.
The letter also criticizes "the lack of diversity in the attacks, and the unwillingness to go after the centers and headquarters especially when they are easy targets, and being content with sending suicide bombers after armored vehicles."
Also on the list of complaints: "squandering the Muslims' money on petty expenses, cars and phones."
He ends with the warning that al-Zarqawi needs to "be attentive to the Jihad in Mosul and pursue its development." Otherwise, "the fall of Mosul in the hands of the mujahedeen is possible, and because it relieves the pressure off the other cities such as Qaim and Tal Afar."
His complaints echoed similar concerns raised in a letter written by a terrorist cell leader who fought in Fallujah and discovered during a raid in Baghdad in May, the military said.
Earlier this year, U.S. troops arrested several key al-Qaida leaders in Mosul, including the head of the branch.
Al-Qaida in Iraq is led by al-Zarqawi and has claimed responsibility for numerous bombings, kidnap-slayings of foreign diplomats, beheadings of U.S. and other foreign hostages and suicide attacks.
I see that the AP did not alter LTC Kurilla's quote to refer to them as 'insurgents'. Maybe they couldn't fit 'progressive, peace-loving, revolutionary, vanguard of the proletariat, working class militiamen' into the space for the story.
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