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US troops attack al-Qa'eda's Iraq stronghold
American and Iraqi forces have begun their final offensive against al-Qa'eda in Iraq having surrounded the organisation's last major stronghold in the northern city of Mosul.After setting up a security cordon around the outskirts of the city and an inner ring of police stations, a joint force of almost 11,000 troops is now mounting strikes on hundreds of terrorist sanctuaries between the two rings in an effort to eradicate the al-Qa'eda threat. The operations are fraught with danger as streets and houses are often booby-trapped. The city, which has a population of 1.6 million, has no sectarian divides, so al-Qa'eda bases are intermingled with civilian homes. But house by house, the force intends to clear the city of terrorists in what Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, has called a "decisive battle". On an operation attended by The Daily Telegraph yesterday, one of the first in the new mission, US and Iraqi forces targeted an al-Qa'eda safehouse used by terrorists. After rescuing a grateful local man, Wassim Mahmoud, who had been kidnapped and stashed beneath a trap door in the floor of the building, the commanding officer, Capt Alexander Rasmussen, consulted members of the 2nd brigade Iraqi Army on what to do with the compound. "Do we blow it up or set an ambush?" With suspicious wires indicating a booby-trapped arms cache, the Iraqis persuaded Capt Rasmussen to set a trap. Before driving off, Capt Rasmussen stopped at local houses to apologise for ripping down electricity cables. The gesture paid off when an elder told the patrol about a freshly planted roadside bomb just 50 yards away. Local residents appear to be ready to offer Americans conditional support - provided the military can install a sense of security on Mosul's streets for the first time since Saddam Hussein's demise. "We need a peaceful living environment," said Abdullah Qais, a retired merchant. He added: "There are good people living in good houses in Mosul but they are scared. The bad people can come at any time and you cannot stop them." A year after Washington and Baghdad introduced a "surge" in troop numbers the north of the country has become the epicentre of terrorism in Iraq. The country's biggest Sunni Muslim city has seen an influx of fighters seeking refuge from elsewhere in the country. "Mosul is the elephant in the room," said Lt Col Michael Simmering, of the 3rd Armoured Cavalry Regiment. "It is the last major stronghold of al-Qa'eda and home to a fractured insurgency of many different groups." The Ottoman trading outpost traces its roots to Biblical Nineveh and Nimrud. Mosul's Sunnis prospered under Saddam's Ba'ath Party, dominating Iraq's professions and the army. But powerful families disenfranchised by the 2003 invasion quickly became the bedrock of Iraq's insurgency. Posted by: Sherry 2008-02-20 |
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