And here is another. I don't know how reliable the source is, but Mosul has been a hot bed the last couple of days.
Mosul May Be the Next Fallujah, Officials Fear
Posted 11-11-2004 10:55:00 (GMT 11-11-2004 16:55:0)
With war already raging in Fallujah in central Iraq, officials worry that the relatively peaceful north is on the brink of explosion, with fighting already flaring in the city of Mosul.
This assessment comes as the 4,000 soldiers of a Fort Lewis-based Stryker brigade face an increasingly violent uprising in the northern Iraq city, where insurgents in recent days have launched attacks with small arms, rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and bombs.
"The Mosul governor has invoked immediate curfew and all bridges are closed," U.S. Army Lt Col. Paul Hastings said.
Security and intelligence officials of the pro-U.S. Kurdish autonomous region of northern Iraq say they have concluded that Mosul, an ethnically diverse city of 2.5 million near the Syrian and Turkish borders, may be the next battlefield in the war between insurgents fighting the U.S.-led occupation force and Iraqi interim government.
"We are very worried about Mosul," said Kosrat Rasool Ali, a ranking leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, which controls the eastern half of the autonomous Kurdish region. "The same terrorists who are in Fallujah are coming to Mosul. They are reorganizing themselves, they are coordinating with the other groups."
U.S. military officials have suggested that the lighter-than-expected military resistance against their Fallujah assault may mean that many of the insurgents had filtered out of the city to other population centers.
"Mosul is a big threat," said a high-level Kurdish security official in Irbil, about 50 miles west of Mosul, speaking on condition of anonymity. "It is going to be the second Fallujah, but even worse."
The action spiked this week, as insurgents faced with a U.S. assault on Fallujah, launched their own attacks in Mosul, as well as Baghdad and other cities farther to the south.
Yesterday in Mosul, firefights broke out between insurgents and U.S. and Iraqi forces, prompting the curfew and bridge closures.
The soldiers of the 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division arrived in Iraq only within the past two months, replacing another Fort Lewis-based Stryker brigade that had completed its tour of duty.
They are part of Task Force Olympia, which is working with Iraq forces to try to improve security in Mosul.
Despite the efforts, the security situation in Mosul has been eroding in recent weeks, with Mosul suffering a surge in suicide and roadside bombings.
Two convoys and a police station were targeted in yesterday's attacks. Fighting then spread to other areas, with Reuters reporting that residents stayed inside as grenade blasts shook the city while U.S. helicopters flew overhead.
The casualties included two U.S. soldiers killed Monday, when mortar attacks hit their base. One of those soldiers was identified yesterday as Master Sgt. Steven Auchman, who worked with the 5th Air Support Operation in support of the Fort Lewis Stryker Brigade. He was scheduled to return from Iraq in January.
The casualties yesterday also included a foreign contractor who died in a Mosul convoy attack, according to U.S. Capt. Angela Bowman. Three Iraqi policemen and an Iraqi National Guard soldier also were killed, hospital and security officials said.
Mosul -- unlike the ethnically and religiously homogenous cities of the Sunni triangle, such as Samarra, Fallujah and Ramadi -- contains a mix of populations. The city has a significant Christian minority and large groups of Kurds and Turkomans, with ties to Turkey, as well as the Sunni Arabs who populate the ranks of the anti-U.S. insurgency.
After falling into chaos immediately after the U.S.-led invasion last year, Mosul became a relatively peaceful city under the control of Maj. Gen. David Petreaus and the U.S. Army's 20,000-strong 101st Airborne Division.
The city is now controlled by the leaner Task Force Olympia. It has some 8,500 soldiers, including the Stryker brigade that patrols in a new generation of eight-wheeled armored vehicles.
But some Iraqis say tensions in the city are being ratcheted up by the interim government and U.S. forces. Talaat al-Wazaan, leader of a Mosul-based nationalist Iraqi party, said the violence in the city was a direct result of provocations by the U.S.-led forces.
"What's happening in Mosul is that the government is making the city into a red area like they made Fallujah," he said. "What Mosul has is high patriotic feeling. We can't keep quiet about what the occupation forces are doing to provoke Mosul."
Task Force Olympia soldiers in recent weeks have worked with Iraqi police, National Guard and soldiers to target terrorists whose attacks have killed many innocent civilians, according to press statements.
Kurdish officials say Mosul has been a magnet for insurgents seeping into the country from Syria.
Attacks on the city's Christians and Kurds have increased. Officials in Baghdad have received reports that Islamic enforcers have run rampant throughout the city, ordering non-Muslim women to wear scarves at the university, said Tahir Khalaf al-Bakaa, Iraq's minister of higher education.
"This is becoming a big problem in Mosul," he said. "We are walking on minefields."
Kurdish officials say that between 100 and 250 Kurdish members of Ansar al-Islam, a violent Islamic group holed up in the Kurdish mountains until the war last year, have infiltrated the once-prosperous oil center.
Recruitment mistakes early in the occupation have riddled the security forces in Mosul with insurgents, said Dana Ahmad Majid, regional director of Asayesh, Sulaymaniyah province's security and intelligence service, which claims to have planted sources in insurgent strongholds such as Fallujah and Baquba.
Seattle Times
We warned Fallugah(spl?) for weeks that we were going to attack. I'm not military but damn, why did we advertise our next move? Of course they left Fallugah. And headed straight for Mosul.
Security and intelligence officials of the pro-U.S. Kurdish autonomous region of northern Iraq say they have concluded that Mosul, an ethnically diverse city of 2.5 million near the Syrian and Turkish borders, may be the next battlefield in the war between insurgents fighting the U.S.-led occupation force and Iraqi interim government.
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Sounds to me like the 'autonomous locals' need to grab a hold of reality quickly before they become a victim of it...