Troops Target Mosul Rebels

U.S. and Iraqi troops stormed insurgent-held police stations and neighborhoods in this northern city Tuesday, retaking a number of sites seized last week by gunmen who had risen up in support of militants in Fallouja.

But throughout the day, a series of bloody attacks and counterattacks erupted across Mosul. Insurgents lobbed mortar rounds at three police stations they had held, nearly destroying one before retreating ahead of the U.S. assault.

Militants also rammed a car bomb into a convoy of American soldiers and Iraqi national guardsmen, killing several of the Iraqi troops as well as a number of civilians, witnesses said. And attackers launched deadly strikes on the offices of a Kurdish political party.

Local officials declared a curfew from 4 p.m. to 6 a.m. and closed the bridges into the city in an effort to stop the movement of guerrillas and gain control.

Though Mosul is not a haven for insurgents like Fallouja, there is significant anti-government sentiment and the city has been troubled for more than a year.

The surge of violence in Iraq’s third-largest city, with a population of 1.7 million, is potentially grave. If fighting escalates further, it might unleash ethnic strife that has been kept in check. That turmoil could spill into other tense areas of northern Iraq, and civilian casualties could soar.

The uprising in Mosul, 225 miles north of Baghdad, has been fueled by a combination of ethnic tension and competing political allegiances.

The city is home to ethnic Kurds and Turkmens who have clashed frequently with Mosul’s Arabs.

Though Kurds have been among the Iraqis most accepting of the U.S. presence in the country, many of Mosul’s Arabs are former members of Saddam Hussein’s regime.

Like the insurgents in Fallouja, Mosul’s Arabs are Sunni Muslims who believe they have little to gain by furthering the U.S. goal of creating a new government, which almost certainly will be led by Shiites.

Shiite Muslims are the majority sect in Iraq, but Sunnis held most of the political power under Hussein.

Though U.S. and Iraqi military leaders believe that some insurgents have migrated from Fallouja to Mosul, the majority of fighters appears to be local.

Neither U.S. forces nor local hospitals have released information about the number of people injured or killed in Mosul, but witnesses described scenes of carnage and burning cars in several neighborhoods Tuesday.

As a steady rain fell, coils of heavy black smoke rose from the impoverished Islaah Al Zeraii district, a stronghold of insurgents. The car bomb had just exploded there, igniting a pickup carrying the Iraqi guardsmen. Blood covered the pavement and shards of twisted metal and glass were flung hundreds of feet.

“It was like hell when we heard the explosion,” said Sallam Abid, a store owner who was cleaning blood from the ground in front of his shop after the blast. “I think more than seven civilians were killed.”

Two other attacks targeted the headquarters and a branch office of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of the two largest Kurdish political parties.

Witnesses said a car with weapons and three people inside had careened toward a checkpoint manned by Kurdish peshmerga militiamen.

The militiamen fired on the car, which then exploded, killing the occupants.

“I saw three people sitting in the car with my own eyes. Three of the peshmerga were also wounded severely. They took them inside,” said Moqdad Sahib, 25, a college student.

Children gathered around the blazing car, staring. Witnesses said random gunfire that occurred just before the explosion had killed two civilians in the area.

Tuesday’s U.S.-Iraqi offensive in Mosul came after several days of mayhem in the city. Last week, groups of up to 50 militants stormed through Mosul, attacking police stations, looting weapons and vehicles and setting buildings on fire.

Nine of Mosul’s 33 police stations were overrun in the last week, and many Iraqi police deserted, with some joining the militants, witnesses said. Reconstituting the city’s police force now presents a serious challenge for U.S. troops and the interim Iraqi government.

With national elections scheduled for late January, U.S. and Iraqi troops and the interim government have been struggling to stabilize the country and lay plans for the vote.

Of particular concern is the participation of the Sunnis, some of whom have threatened to boycott the vote in protest of the recent assault on Fallouja.

In a move that could further anger Sunnis, U.S. soldiers raided the Baghdad home of prominent Sunni politician Naseer Ayaef before dawn Tuesday and arrested him.

Ayaef is the second vice president of Iraq’s interim National Assembly.

According to Ayaed Sammurai, the deputy secretary-general of the Iraqi Islamic Party, the troops said they had reports that Ayaef had explosives in his house.

Sammurai said the soldiers searched Ayaef’s house, injuring one of his guards but finding nothing. They tested his hands for explosives and again found nothing, Sammurai said, but detained him anyway.

A spokesman for interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi requested that Ayaef be turned over to Iraqi authorities. Allawi told Ayaef’s family and members of his political party that any allegations would be investigated “immediately and transparently.”

The arrest startled Iraqi government officials, who as recently as 10 days ago said Ayaef had been a negotiator in talks aimed at avoiding the U.S. invasion of Fallouja.

The Iraqi Islamic Party’s leaders were already distraught over the assault on Fallouja, which they felt unduly hurt civilians and substituted military muscle for negotiation. They withdrew from the government and severed ties with their one representative in Allawi’s Cabinet after he disobeyed a party directive to resign his post.

Ahmed reported from Mosul and Rubin from Baghdad.